A staff member at the National Central Human Bio-Resource Bank receives the first batch of human biological resources collected through the National Integrated Bio Big Data Project on February 11 this year. (Photo provided by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency)
SEOUL, Dec. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea plans to gradually open access to its national integrated bio big data system beginning in the second half of next year, as part of a broader push to accelerate the use of medical and public health data across research and clinical fields, the government said Wednesday.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced the initiative during a policy committee meeting in Seoul, where officials discussed strategies to strengthen public data infrastructure and improve nationwide data accessibility.
The government is building a national bio big data repository designed to eventually include medical and genomic information from up to one million people. By 2028, the system will have collected data on 770,000 participants, with portions of the resource made available to researchers starting next year, officials said.
To enhance its public medical data platform, the government will integrate clinical records from national university hospitals into the existing administrative big data system, which has so far been centered on public-sector records.
DNA bio data refers to digitized genetic information derived from human DNA sequencing, genomic data, and various omics datasets. In recent years, it has been increasingly used in a wide range of fields, including disease diagnosis, drug development, personalized treatment, and data storage. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
New policies will also allow medical data held by multiple institutions to be linked for artificial intelligence model training and clinical research—a key step toward supporting domestic AI startups in diagnostics, drug development and predictive medicine.
To lower entry barriers for smaller firms, the number of government-funded medical data “vouchers” for AI startups and small businesses will increase from eight projects this year to 40 next year.
Officials said standardized review procedures for Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and Data Review Boards (DRBs) will be introduced to streamline data-access applications, while a shared DRB system will be created to improve efficiency and consistency.
Separately, the government plans to fund 20 pilot projects next year to verify the clinical performance of medical AI solutions before hospitals adopt them.
Public-sector data infrastructure will also be upgraded. The National Institute of Health will secure high-performance graphical processing units and cloud capabilities to allow remote analysis of large datasets. The National Cancer Center will expand its cancer data integration services and build a global-scale converged cancer big data platform.
The National Health Insurance Service said it will expand its data analysis centers and strengthen research support, while the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service will develop new low-risk pseudonymized datasets.
Officials said the measures are intended to help South Korea build a more competitive medical AI ecosystem, enhance public health research, and ensure that sensitive health data is handled securely while remaining useful for innovation.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
