Gangnam Severance Hospital 강남세브란스, Samsung Electronics 삼성전자, and FNI 에프앤아이, a virtual-reality software company, have signed an agreement to co-develop a VR-based healthcare technology, the hospital said Tuesday.

Under the agreement, the three plan to jointly study mental healthcare technology, formulate a medical mobile virtual reality business model and seek a new medical IT convergence infrastructure.

The vast amount of medical data from Gangnam Severance Hospital, virtual reality headset "Gear VR" by Samsung Electronics and VR contents development technology FNI will likely combine to develop the VR programs.

In particular, they plan to develop a professional and systematic medical program related to mental health such as cognitive behavior therapy research, psychological assessment, and education, psychological diagnosis and treatment.

The product in development will include a service platform that has a VR diagnostic kit for analyzing the user’s psychological state, VR mental health application covering psychological evaluation, education and training and an artificial intelligence diagnosis system.

“Medical technology using virtual reality presents new alternatives to various psychological therapy and education,” said Kim Jae-jin 김재진, a deputy director at Gangnam Severance. “We expect this agreement to provide more sophisticated medical services by developing more professional psychological therapy and prevention programs.”

Business officials say they will be able to commercialize the virtual reality-based healthcare service in 2018 and sell it online and offline for the use in B2B markets such as such as hospitals, municipalities, dementia centers, schools and ordinary households.

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