KT said on Oct. 20 it will cooperate with medical AI specialist Acryl to help medical institutions use data and introduce AI services.

The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding at Acryl's headquarters in Seolleung, Seoul. The deal aims to discover business models for hospital-tailored AI transformation (AX) by combining KT's integrated AI, cloud and data capabilities with Acryl's medical data platform and AI solution technologies.

They will pursue medical data standardisation and build a foundation for using it. They also plan to jointly identify and test medical AI technologies and services, and push medical AI research and development, commercialisation and expansion. They plan to build a cooperation system that links technology verification to commercialisation, and to seek government and public research projects and new business opportunities together.

KT earlier unveiled a "medical standardisation model" that provides infrastructure, data platforms and AI services tailored to each hospital's needs. Based on it, KT is supporting the introduction of AX at general hospitals and tertiary general hospitals nationwide, and is expanding its scope through cooperation with medical specialist companies.

Park Wae-jin (박외진), Acryl's CEO, said, "With cooperation with KT, we will advance services that can be applied to various medical environments and expand business opportunities in the domestic medical AI market."

Noh Hyeong-rae (노형래), executive managing director and head of the Corporate Business Division at KT's Enterprise unit, said, "The core of medical AX is connecting the data owned by hospitals so it can be used in actual care and in research and operations." He added, "We will work with Acryl to strengthen the foundation for applying medical AX services on site and pursue tailored projects for each hospital."