South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Information Society Agency (NIA) said on Monday they will accept applications through May 22 for a project to support shifting public hospital information systems to AI cloud services.

The core of the project is to replace aging hospital information systems that were built separately under a systems integration approach with private-sector AI-based software-as-a-service. The science ministry, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the National Medical Center and local medical centers plan to take part from the planning stage to develop and introduce services reflecting the characteristics of public medical institutions.

Companies participating in the project must propose AI-SaaS that reflects the characteristics of public healthcare, including emergency responses to infectious diseases and care for vulnerable groups. They must also present a proof roadmap to upgrade an existing SaaS-form hospital information system or develop a new one and roll it out fully at public medical institutions.

The scope covers hospital information systems overall, including five core systems: electronic medical records, clinical laboratory information systems, order communication systems, pharmacy management systems and hospital management information systems. It also requires clinical support features such as summaries of past medical records using generative AI, as well as automation for administrative, billing and insurance tasks.

The government set a priority goal of converting existing hospital information systems at the National Medical Center and Seoul Medical Center to private-sector AI-based SaaS by 2027. It plans to pursue expansion to 35 local medical centers nationwide, including Daegu Medical Center, after securing additional budget.

Choi Dong-won (최동원), director-general for AI Infrastructure Policy at the science ministry, said introducing private AI-SaaS-based hospital information systems to public medical institutions that have used aging systems integration-based systems is expected to cut budgets and drive AX innovation in public healthcare. He said the ministry will work closely with the health ministry and public medical institutions to ensure AI-SaaS becomes established across all public medical institutions.