Korea's largest obesity clinic, 365mc, said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Kyung Hee University Medical Center to jointly research and develop an artificial intelligence (AI) decision-making tool for liposuction.

Under the accord, the two parties will conduct joint R&D to determine the optimal amount of liposuction, and develop a digital obesity treatment services using big data and AI.

According to 365mc, in liposuction surgery, the amount of fat suctioned is the most important determinant of prognosis. If too much fat is sucked out, the chances of complications increase, while if too little fat is sucked out, it is difficult to achieve the desired effect.

In the past, the amount of suction during liposuction surgery has been determined solely by the surgeon's experience and intuition, but through this study, the two organizations agreed to develop a tool called "Fatgorythm."

The tool will use machine learning to analyze hundreds of thousands of existing liposuction surgery results data to predict the optimal amount of liposuction to achieve the best clinical outcome for each customer case before surgery.

365mc also plans to provide its liposuction customers other various digital treatment services such as obesity prevention, management, and treatment applications, virtual reality (VR), metaverse, and games.

Kyung Hee plans to utilize ODN, a company spun off from the digital health center, in developing the AI tool.

ODN has original technology and related intellectual property rights for digital health solutions for endocrine and metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes, and is developing solutions that provide personalized lifestyle management methodologies to users easily and conveniently.

“It is expected that 365mc's know-how in obesity medicine accumulated over the past 20 years and Kyung Hee Center for Digital Health’s original technology for digital health solutions will create great synergy,” 365mc CEO Kim Nam-chul said. “365mc will contribute to improving the healthcare and quality of life of obese patients by expanding into the digital healthcare field.”

Kyung Hee Center for Digital Health director Lee Sang-yeol also said, “We are very pleased to collaborate with 365mc, which holds a unique position in the domestic obesity treatment market with a vast number of treatment cases.”

By using ODN’s technology, the center will enable 365mc's liposuction clients to further improve their weight management efficiency, Lee added.