Medical staffers monitor screens showing vital signs in patients infected with the new coronavirus, at a hospital in Mungyeong, 180 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on March 10, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 13 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s excellent information and communications technology (ICT) is showing its true value in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
The Ministry of Science and ICT on Thursday unveiled major cases in which ICT has been applied in efforts to overcome the virus.
ICT is being used to provide information on the proliferation of the virus and responses, diagnosis and selection of patients, as well as finding and developing treatments.
South Korean software company Korea Spatial Information & Community Co. is providing comprehensive status maps, including information on patient movements, selected clinics, and religious facilities of the Shincheonji group, based on GIS data.
In addition, Naver’s artificial intelligence (AI) platform “Clova” automatically calls those who voluntarily quarantined themselves from COVID-19 in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, twice a day to provide AI-based voicebot services that check for fever and respiratory symptoms, and e-mail the results of counseling to health center employees.
WISEnut, an ICT company, will implement a chatbot service for public interest to inform citizens of prevention measures against coronavirus and proper countermeasures.
Meanwhile, the development of diagnostic kits and x-ray reading time have been greatly reduced due to AI utilization.
Seegene, a producer of coronavirus reagents, used AI in the process of developing diagnostic kits and shortened the duration of development by about two weeks.
AI medical solution developer Vuno, on the other hand, installed medical image reading AI at the Hongcheon County health center that can quickly classify patients with severe diseases by reading X-ray images within three seconds. The technology is also being used by some hospitals in Daegu.
JLK-Inspection, an AI-based medical analysis company, is also discussing a plan to develop technology to read X-rays within seconds using AI to check if a confirmed person has lung disease, and implement it further at medical sites.
Through its analysis of AI, Deargen has found that HIV treatments are also effective at treating COVID-19, and Arontier is also building an AI platform to discover candidate materials for new drugs.
Furthermore, cloud computing companies such as Naver Business Platform (NBP) and Koscom are providing 38 private development teams with free apps to share coronavirus related public mask sales information and platforms to support the development of web services.
KT Corp., South Korea’s leading telecommunication service provider, will implement special rate policies in such industries as shopping malls and cyber universities, where online traffic is soaring in the short term due to the spread of COVID-19, and offer free promotions for startups.
NBP will cut server prices for small and medium-sized enterprises by 50 percent.
Local game developer NHN Entertainment Corp. will also offer a cloud-based collaboration platform that enables messenger or video conferencing, free of charge to small and medium-sized companies.
D. M. Park (dmpark@koreabizwire.com)
