The startup team from the Department of Physical Therapy at Samyook University, 'Ijoa (Professors Byeonghee Lee and Jeongae An, students Minji Lee and Yongchan Jo),' received the Minister of Health and Welfare Award (Excellence Award) at the '2023 Health and Medical Big Data Utilization Startup Competition,' hosted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and organized by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service.
From the right, Professor Byunghee Lee and Professor Annae Ahn of the Department of Physical Therapy at Samyook University [Image source=Samyook University]
The competition was held as a national public contest to promote the use of health and medical big data, discover creative innovative startups, and revitalize the data economy. Out of a total of 93 submitted items, 16 teams were honored with awards.
The Ijoa team developed 'Ijoa - Monitoring Normal Development and Medical Linkage Services for Infants and Toddlers Using Health and Medical Big Data and Motion Recognition Systems,' which earned them the Minister of Health and Welfare Award.
As of last year, South Korea's total fertility rate was 0.78, marking the lowest point since birth statistics began in 1970. Professor Lee said, "We wanted to create an application that helps precious children grow up healthy and well. New parents inevitably worry about questions like 'Is my child growing well?' and 'Am I raising my child properly?' We put those feelings into our service."
'Ijoa' uses motion recognition technology based on a smartphone application and home cameras to detect abnormal signs in infants and toddlers (such as fever, crying, sleep duration, breathing) and assess normal development (including cerebral palsy and autism spectrum disorders).
Additionally, it utilizes health and medical big data to conduct medical examinations, provide medical linkage services such as intervention and early rehabilitation, hospital search, and counseling services.
The Ijoa team was also selected as a '2023 Data Voucher Support Project Demand Company' by the Ministry of Science and ICT as a social enterprise. They are currently building AI-processed datasets for deep learning model training using the datasets they possess and collect, which will be used to enhance the functionality of the motion recognition system in the future.
Professor Byeonghee Lee stated, "It can be used not only in homes, daycare centers, and kindergartens but also in medical institutions that provide professional diagnosis and intervention related to infant and toddler health and development. We expect it to help protect the precious lives of infants and toddlers and contribute to reducing national medical costs."
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