South Korea forms national bio-health commission 

The South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) has recently enacted the presidential decree that establishes the Bio-health Innovation Commission. 

This commission, according to a press release, seeks to foster the local bio-health industry and provide systemic support for the integration of the latest technologies, including AI and nanotechnology. It serves as a government "control tower" headed by the Prime Minister and composed of 12 government ministries, including the MOHW, and experts from the academe and bio-health industry. 

All members will cooperate to review and deliberate policies and plans for supporting the development, commercialisation, insurance coverage, and market expansion of bio-health technologies. Previously, these processes have been hindered by the compartmentalisation of various government agencies. 

Indonesia eases access to population health data 

The Indonesian Ministry of Health has built a one-stop Data Services Portal for accessing population health data. 

The ministry collaborated with the Health Development Policy Agency and the Data and Information Center to put up the said portal, which provides access to information including those related to COVID-19 and national surveys like the Indonesian Nutrition Status Survey, Basic Health Research and Health Facilities Research. It also features downloadable documents related to national and local health data collection, such as questionnaires, codebooks, guidelines and reports.

The Data Service Portal is accessible to the public, particularly researchers, academics, analysts and policymakers, for gathering and using data as a basis for formulating health-related research, policies and programmes. 

Lunit announces extended partnership with Saudi's Seha Virtual Hospital

Lunit has extended its partnership with the Seha Virtual Hospital (SVH) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

It has signed a memorandum of understanding with SVH to jointly contribute to the kingdom's national cancer screening programme. Lunit will be providing its suite of AI cancer detection solutions to SVH's network of 150 hospitals with initial deployments at the King Saud Medical City in Riyadh and a group of eight hospitals in Makkah. Under the MOU they will also co-develop an AI-based CT analyser for more precise cancer and tuberculosis diagnosis, as well as secure high-quality healthcare data for enhancing Lunit's AI models. 

The MOU comes on top of their existing cooperation, which began in July, to validate Lunit's solutions across SVH's network.

This extended partnership also comes as Lunit joins the Saudi Vision 2030 Healthcare Sandbox, which is facilitating the digital transformation of the kingdom's healthcare sector by providing partners with a business-friendly environment for conducting collaborations, attracting investments, and acquiring business expansion opportunities. 

Ajou University Hospital building large AI-based medical imaging solution with Kakao Brain

The Ajou University Hospital in South Korea has partnered with Kakao Brain in an ambitious project to develop what could be the world's biggest medical imaging diagnostic assistance solution based on ultra-large AI. 

They recently signed a memorandum of understanding, under which they agreed to establish the necessary research infrastructure for data learning, engage in academic exchanges to promote ultra-large AI models and evaluate those AI models for commercialisation.  

Ajou University Hospital is one of the nine university-affiliated hospitals that joined Kakao Brain's ongoing research programme for advancing the use of AI in the medical field. 

RailTel, LifeSigns to establish optic fibre-based connectivity in rural India for remote health monitoring

Patient monitoring solutions provider LifeSigns has entered into a strategic partnership with RailTel Corporation to enable optic fibre-based connectivity in rural India, powering remote health monitoring.

Leveraging RailTel's optic fibre networks, LifeSigns will deploy its patient monitoring solution in 1,000 rural and tier-three cities across the country over 1,000 days, according to a press release. The solution will provide healthcare providers and doctors access to round-the-clock and uninterrupted near-real-time streaming of patient data from various settings – at home, in hospitals, and in the ambulance.

MediBuddy inks new partnership to deliver digital healthcare in rural India

Digital health platform MediBuddy has tied up with microfinance company Satin Creditcare Network to expand healthcare access to low-income communities across rural regions in India.

It is leveraging the reach of Satin Creditcare, which offers financial assistance to households excluded from mainstream financial service providers, to provide comprehensive healthcare services, including doctor consultations, blood tests and health insurance, particularly targeting women living in rural areas.