Korea Biomedical Review is publishing a series of interview articles highlighting the most influential female executives in the Korean biotech and biopharma industry. This is the third installment. -- Ed.

At the young age of 34, Janice Jung leads a successful team that introduced Lunit INSIGHT MMG, an AI-based breast cancer screening solution, into the national breast cancer screening program in New South Wales, Australia.

Expanding beyond its start-up roots, Lunit is targeting national cancer screening programs as one way to continue its global growth. With offices in Shanghai, Amsterdam, and Boston, the company is looking to expand its footprint even further.

Jung, who is the Vice President of Lunit's Cancer Screening Business Development for North and South America, Asia Pacific, and Australia and New Zealand regions, recently spoke with Korea Biomedical Review about her journey into the medical AI field. 

Initially, Jung did not have a high interest in the field, but after meeting one of Lunit's co-founders, Jang Min-hong, she realized the potential of Lunit's AI solutions.

“Using technology to augment the medical workforce to improve the quality of care by solving pressing healthcare issues such as the lack of skilled human resources and errors in analyzing medical images like false positives and negatives, appealed to me.”

She also mentioned that her decision to pursue a career in the medical device industry was partially influenced by a 10-week preceptorship she did in college at a nearby university hospital, where she observed how radiation oncologists planned and conducted radiation therapy, as well as handled follow-up care.

Although she has a background in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and a string of other roles in multinational organizations, like Philips, Samsung Medison, and Doctors Without Borders, she admitted that she faced a steep learning curve acquainting herself with Lunit’s AI technologies when she first joined.

Leading in a tech-based environment

Jung mentioned that her typical day involves a series of meetings during the day, followed by strategic thinking and planning in the evenings.

Apart from managing three Korea-based and four overseas business colleagues in Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and the U.S., she wears other hats leading task force teams in the company spanning product, medical, research, and business-related functions.

Along her career path, she met great male and female mentors who taught her that the healthcare industry resembles a marathon rather than a sprint, requiring dedication and time to build successful relationships and clinical evidence with academic leaders.

Jung also highlighted that throughout her career, she noticed a lack of female leaders in comparison to male leaders. 

However, among the female leaders she has worked with, she observed a common trait of having a razor-sharp focus on their goals and objectives.

She admitted that she was not always goal-oriented but after joining Lunit, she said that she found herself “at home” and was able to better define and fuel her career aspirations to grow as a global business leader.

The young businesswoman developed the first customer relationships for Lunit in Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia, led Lunit’s participation and engagement with global partners at RSNA (Radiological Society of North America), the largest radiology congress in the U.S.

She said she plans to continue building her career blueprint in the industry by supporting the regional projects she manages.

Jung acknowledged that the adoption of medical AI may still be a slow process in many regions. Nevertheless, she highlighted Lunit's recent success in winning the tender for Australia's "BreastScreen NSW Machine Reading Project" to implement AI-assisted imaging into a national cancer screening program as a significant milestone for both Lunit and the medical AI industry as a whole.

“I think this was a defining moment for me as it perfectly aligned with my personal goals to improve healthcare globally and the company’s mission to conquer cancer with AI,” she elaborated.

Accordingly, the project is delivered across nine screening and assessment services in local health districts in Australia encompassing 350,000 screening mammography exams annually to help detect breast cancer early before it has a chance to spread, thus improving the survival rates of women with breast cancer.

“We're currently doing a very large-scale, retrospective validation of our solution on the data collected from these sites, and once completed, we will move on to a second round of testing, which will be the validation in the real-life setting,” she explained. “Once everything goes smoothly, our AI solution can be implemented in actual clinical workflows and start impacting patient’s healthcare experience.”

As the first of its kind, she mentioned that the company is eager to use the momentum from this project to fuel the same AI adoption in areas like Europe and the Middle East where interest has also been expressed.

She attributed these successes to mentors who helped her navigate the healthcare business space and taught her the importance of focusing on the clinical needs and values that address those needs rather than the product itself.

She also pointed out, “Sometimes the right key opinion leaders (KOLs) might not always be the most senior members, but the younger, rising stars that can invest more time and grow with the company.”

'You don’t have to be the smartest one to lead'

On this note, she mentioned two main goals for the year.

“At Lunit, we already have a strong foundation with nearly 2,000 customers internationally and global partnerships including GE HealthCare, Philips, and Fujifilm,” she explained. “Our main goal is to ensure cost-efficient, sustainable growth for Lunit’s AI radiology solutions based on this foundation.”

In this regard, she added, “We’re also eager to expand our business in the U.S. market with pending FDA clearance for Lunit INSIGHT DBT, a 3D breast tomosynthesis solution, which will be a ‘game-changer’ in the U.S. breast screening market.”

However, she admitted that it isn’t always smooth sailing. The AI field especially requires collaborative efforts across regulatory affairs, medical affairs, product management, research and development, engineering, and more.

In particular, she noted that leading team members who are older or more experienced than her was at first intimidating. In Korea, age-based hierarchy still exists, but thankfully, it's less noticeable in the start-up space.

“I realized that you don’t have to necessarily be the most experienced or smartest of the crew to be the leader but I think being someone who can empathize with team members to enable them to find a solution is a much more valuable quality in a leader.”

Vice-versa, she said that she also leverages the different talents and expertise of individuals within the team most efficiently for the company and team’s success, in what she described as a “symbiotic” relationship.

“When you can work together seamlessly with talented people, forming ‘symbiotic’ relationships with them, their expertise becomes yours and yours becomes theirs,” she said.

Jung noted that women already have a knack for making the best use of available resources around them and should leverage this to their advantage to ascend to higher positions.

“Aspiring female leaders should practice the habit of quickly understanding the value that other people can bring to the table and finding practical ways of maximizing those values within their respective organizations,” she replied. “A smart way to climb up the ladder is by mutually utilizing the skills and experiences of the people you work with.”