'Empathic Care' Thanks to AI... Both Patients and Medical Staff Satisfied
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
03.24.2026 | 7:08 PM
[National University Hospitals Race to Innovate with AI]
Visiting a Consultation Room at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital:
AI Automatically Inputs
Doctor-Patient Encounters, Enabling Deep Conversations While Making Eye Contact
On the 17th, Professor Kim Jeong-eun of the Dept. of Family Medicine at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital is examining a patient using medical artificial intelligence ( AI ). Standing in the back row, Minister of Health and Welfare Jeong Eun-kyeong (right) and President Song Jeong-han of Seoul National University Bundang Hospital are watching the conversation being automatically entered into the monitor during the consultation.
[Seoul National University Bundang Hospital]
On the 17th, in the Family Medicine consultation room at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, when a patient complained, “I’m tired because I’ve been working a lot of overtime lately,” it was recorded as real-time text on the screen right in front of them. Subsequently, the doctor’s remarks were also clearly organized. The patient and doctor continued the consultation while looking at the same screen and making eye contact. This scene is quite different from the traditional consultation environment where doctors would stare at a monitor and input medical terms.
This change is due to the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the consultation room, and satisfaction is high among both patients and medical staff. Not only is the accuracy of diagnosis higher, but time for mutual connection has also been created. Professor Kim Jung-eun of the Department of Family Medicine at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, who has used this service for over a year, said, “When I input it manually, I’m constantly distracted by checking for typos, but since it is recorded automatically, I can look the patient in the eye one more time and have a deeper conversation.”
National university hospitals across the country are vying to adopt medical AI . The government has also announced plans to promote the AI Transformation (AX), centering on national university hospitals . On this day, Minister of Health and Welfare Jeong Eun-kyeong met with the heads of major regional medical institutions at Bundang Seoul National University Hospital and stated, “We will establish an ‘AI Basic Healthcare Promotion Task Force’ and support national university hospitals to fulfill their role as the
AX (AI) hub of the regional medical system.”
In the public healthcare sector, AX is not an option, but a necessity. This is because the government views medical AI as the key to addressing issues related to regional, essential, and public healthcare. The aim is to ensure that every citizen nationwide can receive high-quality medical care anywhere by enhancing medical productivity while ensuring patient safety. Shin Hyun-woong, Head of the Health and Medical Policy Research Division at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, said, “Currently, medical services face limitations in time and space, but these can be resolved by utilizing AI ,” adding, “We will introduce AI equipment and create a system to share and connect data.”
There is also a sense of urgency that if not acted now, the sector will fall behind forever. Shin warned, “If public healthcare AI does not advance first, public healthcare could fall into a double marginalization.” He explained that public healthcare has been neglected by the medical market, and neglecting AX would lead to facing a double layer of vulnerability.
Opportunity to revitalize essential regional public healthcare by overcoming time and space constraints with AI implementation;
Major Hospital Directors Say “Government Support Is Needed”
Hospitals attending the meeting, including Seoul National University Hospital, Kyungpook National University Hospital, and Jeonbuk National University Hospital, are currently utilizing products they each need, such as AI for image interpretation and AI for electrocardiogram analysis . Some hospitals are establishing new in-house control towers for AX , while others are investing their own budgets to secure GPUs and conduct direct research and development.
The problem, however, is that it is not immediately profitable. Jeong Se-young, Head of the IT Office at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, stated, "In the current situation, we cannot calculate the return on investment (ROI), and we cannot afford it through a purely cost-based approach," adding, "We are looking at other factors such as patient safety and medical staff satisfaction." It takes at least three years after implementation to analyze the financial impact.
This is why there are calls for government support. Yang Dong-heon, President of Kyungpook National University Hospital, said, "Since connecting the data held by each hospital requires the hospital's human and financial resources, compensation or support is necessary." Song Jeong-han, President of Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, also remarked, "There must be incentives or support for what hospitals develop to further promote research and development."
There are also suggestions that the direction of Medical AX should be considered before making full-scale investments . Jeon Jong-hong, a principal researcher at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), stated, “We need to think about what the vision of Public Medical AX is,” adding, “It should not be viewed merely as part of an informatization project, but rather we must consider what needs to be changed and how, and what needs to be delivered to doctors and patients.”
Choi Won-seok(choi.wonseok@mk.co.kr)