The Canadian Embassy in Korea hosted the Canada-Korea Digital Health Innovation Forum to connect and strengthen ties between Canadian and Korean companies in the digital health industry at the Fairmont Ambassador Hotel in Seoul on Wednesday.
At the event, 10 Canadian biocompanies gave a brief introduction of their digital health solutions in the field of neurological disease, mental disease, EMR for specialty diseases, digital therapeutics, AI-based digital assets, digital twin platforms, smart IoT devices and more.
Tamara Mawhinney, Chargée d’Affaires of Canada to the Republic of Korea, said the bilateral science collaboration was formalized in 2016 with both governments funding joint innovative collaboration projects with more than 20 collaborative projects funded since.
Canada has already committed more than $114 million to support digital initiatives across the country particularly focused on AI, she went on to say.
Additionally, she noted that both the Korean and Canadian governments have announced plans to ease regulations and prepare new government initiatives to better support and foster investment and R&D opportunities in the digital health industry.
Industrial technology advisor, Neil Liu, from the National Research Council of Canada said that Covid-19 spurred the digital health industry in Canada but also identified the silos that exist in the digital health care systems across each district in Canada.
He explained, “This makes it difficult to connect one solution across the Canadian Health system due to compatibility issues between digital platforms preventing the smooth flow of data across different hospital institutions.”
However, he quickly noted that some Canadian digital healthcare companies are making significant advancements to bypass these limitations in these segregated information systems but stressed that federal government still needs to play a bigger role in this regard to better support the implementation of these companies innovative technologies.
On a similar note, EverTri’s CSO Professor Shin Jin-wook acknowledged that although Korea succeeds in providing cost-effective and accessible hospitals, digital health remains a struggle despite strong technology infrastructure.
Shin introduced the DTx development health system platform, jointly created by Yonsei University Health System and EverTri, which helps companies commercialize digital solutions through DTx development advisory, commercialization, and consultation for global market entry support.
Also, Korea’s local digital healthcare industry was also presented by KT Vice President Lee Hai-sung, who spoke on the prevention, diagnostic and therapeutic pipeline projects of KT, one of Korea’s largest telecom providers.