Up to 400 Million Won in Data Vouchers for Medical AI Companies

Ministry of Health and Welfare Expects Medical AI Innovation
Through Data Demand-Supply Matching

The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Health Information Service announced on the 16th that they will be accepting applications from companies seeking to participate in the "Medical AI Data Utilization Voucher Support Project" until August 8, in order to promote the safe use of medical data.

Up to 400 Million Won in Data Vouchers for Medical AI Companies

Previously, the Ministry of Health and Welfare allocated an additional 2.4 billion won in the second supplementary budget for 2025 to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and startups developing medical artificial intelligence (AI). The ministry will provide up to 400 million won per company to cover data processing and analysis costs, enabling these companies to use data from data-driven hospitals to develop AI-based products and services.

Data-driven hospitals refer to 43 medical institutions that receive support to establish data infrastructure and utilization procedures, allowing clinical data accumulated at medical institutions to be used for research and development. The available medical data includes not only imaging data such as CT, MRI, X-ray, and ultrasound, but also narrative electronic medical records (EMR), medical certificates, surgical records, diagnostic codes, test results, medication history, genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic information, ECG (electrocardiogram), EEG (electroencephalogram), blood pressure, oxygen saturation, age, gender, medical history, and lifestyle habits.

Selected companies will, after demand-supply matching, sign agreements with the designated medical institutions. According to the terms of these agreements, they will receive vouchers to cover the costs required for data processing and analysis.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare stated, "Integrating AI technology into the medical field can support quick and accurate diagnoses and help reduce the workload of essential medical personnel." The ministry added, "By providing user-customized data necessary for the development of various medical AI products and services, we hope to create safe and effective cases of medical data utilization."