Three Cases Including Non-Face-to-Face Health Management Service for Seniors Selected as 'Korean New Deal of the Month'

The AI·IoT Health Management Team of the Korea Health Promotion Institute, selected as the "Korean New Deal of the Month" for May.

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The government announced on the 2nd three selected cases for May under the ‘Korean New Deal of the Month’ project, jointly conducted by related ministries. The selected cases include the AI and IoT Health Management Team of the Korea Health Promotion Institute, Kim Taehong, Director of Overflow, and Kwon Wooseok, Executive Director of Wavers.

The Korea Health Promotion Institute’s ‘Elderly Health Management Service Using Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things’ is a non-face-to-face health management service that supports elderly people in preventing chronic diseases and managing their health even amid the COVID-19 situation. It provides various health management devices to the elderly and links them with a dedicated smartphone application to suggest exercises, nutrition management, and lifestyle habit tasks that the elderly can practice in their daily lives. Additionally, dedicated personnel at public health centers observe the elderly’s health status and health behavior practices to help local elderly maintain a healthy daily life.

Since November last year, 11,691 elderly people have received 51,875 exercise and nutrition management services through 24 public health centers nationwide. Starting this month, the service will survey participants’ health changes, willingness to re-participate, and satisfaction to provide beneficiary-centered services. The number of participating public health centers is also planned to expand from the current 24 to 80 within this year.

Kim Taehong, Director of Overflow, is a severely visually impaired person who was born with congenital cataracts and glaucoma; his left eye is blind, and his right eye has residual vision below 0.02. During university, he often missed buses despite using a portable telescope, which made commuting difficult. This inconvenience led him to develop ‘Flowy,’ an enlargement solution for the visually impaired. The AI solution ‘Flowy,’ attached to a smartphone, quickly identifies buses and announces their numbers vocally regardless of bad weather or day and night. Director Kim plans to actively incorporate AI technology to bridge the information gap with non-disabled people and improve information accessibility and mobility rights for socially vulnerable groups.

Kwon Wooseok, Executive Director of Wavers, who has worked in the spatial information field for 20 years, planned a spatial information platform that shares resources based on the internet in line with the Korean New Deal promotion. In January, he successfully completed the first phase of the ‘National Spatial Information Platform’ construction project. The platform collects about 2,000 types of real estate and national spatial information in real-time and provides over 430 million spatial information data annually to 470 institutions, including the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Board of Audit and Inspection. As the platform spreads, administrative agencies will be able to easily utilize spatial information, and the private sector will have easier access and use of data, which is expected to activate startups in the spatial information field.

The ‘Korean New Deal of the Month’ selects candidates recommended by central administrative agencies promoting the Korean New Deal, targeting ▲ individuals or companies directly performing New Deal projects or producing project outcomes ▲ individuals or companies benefiting from New Deal projects ▲ symbolic places of the Korean New Deal, followed by evaluation by a judging committee.

A total of 11 institutions participated in candidate recommendations, and 19 judges, including Eunsang Lee, teacher at Changdeok Middle School; Yungeun Lee, head of AI research at the Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute; Gyuri Jo, representative of the youth climate change organization GYEK; TikTok influencers ‘Dujamae’ (Heo Youngju and Heo Jeongju); writer Eonju Lee; poet Judae Kim; and Mom Cafe representative Mikyung Park, conducted the evaluation.

Kwon Deokcheol, Minister of Health and Welfare, said, “The cases awarded today are all excellent examples demonstrating the vision of the Korean New Deal to transform into an inclusive society where no one is left behind through digital technology innovation. The government will continue to unite its capabilities with the people to ensure that all citizens return to their daily lives and that our country can leap forward as a better nation through the Korean New Deal.”