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AI Basic Healthcare Subcommittee

Opening a new horizon for
Korean healthcare through AI

The AI Basic Healthcare Subcommittee, under the National AI Strategy Committee, is the body in charge of Action Plan Task 90, "Delivering AI-based Basic Healthcare", jointly led by the Ministry of Health & Welfare and the Ministry of Science & ICT. It serves as the operating hub that connects clinical practice, policy, data and industry — designing and overseeing the structural redesign that runs through health equity, the sustainability of national health insurance, and biohealth innovation.
MANDATE · 2026–2028
AI Action Plan, Task 90
A national strategic task sitting under Policy Axis III, Strategic Area 11. Foundational direction set by Q2 2026, AI collaborative-care and emergency-resource coordination launched in Q4 2026, and predictive, collaborative and epidemic AI systems fully deployed by 2028.
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01 · MANDATE

The official mission and tasks
assigned by the Strategy Committee

The detailed policy recommendations of Action Plan Task 90 are organised into one item from the Social Subcommittee and two from the Data Subcommittee. The TF carries out implementation planning, progress review and advisory work across all three axes in an integrated way.

Basic Healthcare TF · Organisation & Operating Plan (Draft) · Mission

The dedicated implementation hub for the healthcare agenda of the AI Action Plan

  • Discharge the Strategy Committee's role of concrete planning, monitoring and advisory work on every healthcare-AI item in the AI Action Plan.
  • Provide dedicated follow-through and budget-planning support for the key agenda items previously handled by the Social and Data Subcommittees, including AI Basic Healthcare and the advancement of healthcare AI.
A · Social Subcommittee

Delivering AI Basic Healthcare

An ageing population, rising chronic disease and uneven distribution of regional medical workforce are placing growing structural strain on the healthcare system, while emergency and infectious-disease response keeps running into the limits of speed and predictability. AI is a core tool for diagnosis, prediction and triage that can reduce clinical workload and narrow access gaps — but it must go hand in hand with data-quality and trustworthiness standards and with clinicians' capacity to interpret and validate its outputs.

Policy recommendations · Ministry of Health & Welfare
  • '26 Q4Design a plan for an AI collaborative-care and emergency-medicine coordination system to close regional access gaps → '28 Q4Build and pilot a real-time AI prediction and triage system
  • '27 Q2Build a tele-collaboration support system to close care gaps in workforce-shortage regions → '28 ~Phase in AI solutions and scale up AI-based tele-collaboration services
  • '28 Q1Complete an AI infectious-disease prediction system based on integrated analysis of epidemic data · Build an AI-driven health information service on top of the national health survey data
  • '26 Q4Establish medical-data quality certification and AI trustworthiness & transparency assessment frameworks → '27 Q1 ~Support AI ethics and usage training for medical professionals and strengthen clinical interpretation & validation capabilities
B · Data Subcommittee

A healthcare-specific
foundation model

Healthcare is far broader than diagnosis and treatment — it covers prevention, everyday health management and long-term aftercare, and reflects each country's medical system and socio-cultural context. Securing a Korean healthcare foundation model built on a sovereign FM is therefore not just an industrial question; it is essential to the stable operation of the national healthcare system and to delivering AI Basic Healthcare.

Policy recommendations · Ministry of Health & Welfare
  • '26 Q1Draw up a development plan for a healthcare-specific foundation model, built on the sovereign AI foundation model being developed by the Ministry of Science & ICT
C · Data Subcommittee

Expanding training data for
AI advancement & AX

Healthcare data is sensitive, diverse and tangled up with ownership questions, which has left it siloed and only partially usable. Korea's heavy private-clinic share makes combining public data even harder. To prepare for the development of a domain-specific FM, the country urgently needs a plan for combining longitudinal clinical records, public data and personally-derived health data.

Policy recommendations
  • ▸ Ministry of Health & Welfare'26 Q2Devise a plan for securing multi-institutional medical data for AI/AX training and for combining and using public & private medical data
  • ▸ Ministry of National Defense'26 Q2Devise an integration and use plan for military-owned medical data and an AI/AX pilot program (in cooperation with the Ministry of Health & Welfare)
  • ▸ Ministry of Science & ICT'26 Q1Devise a plan for linking and cooperating between the National Data Integration Platform and the Healthcare Big-Data Platform
See detailed implementation plan ▾

MoHW detailed plan

  • A. Multi-institutional medical data — Large-scale linkage program that draws on existing big-data initiatives such as Data-Centric Hospitals, a standardisation roadmap, integrated IRB/DRB operations, cloud and personal-information protection
  • A-iii. Review overlap with the Medical Data Space program of the Ministry of Science & ICT and pursue joint implementation
  • A-iv. Plan for amending or removing medical-record retention-period rules
  • B. Data combination — Linkage of public hospital, private hospital and personally-derived health data (including public registries such as the national cancer registry), with re-identification risk safeguards
  • C. Decedent medical data — Collection and use by private hospitals and combination with national public mortality records
  • D. Value assessment and reward — Rewarding data processors (private hospitals, public institutions) and creating public-interest feedback for patients

MND detailed plan

  • A. Integration and use of military hospital medical data (AI solution development)
  • B. AI/AX-based military healthcare improvement pilot program

MSIT detailed plan

  • A. Linking metadata for healthcare public and sensitive data into the National Integration Platform (with the MoHW Healthcare Big-Data Platform)
  • B. Plan for using medical data secured through existing NIA programs
  • C. Cooperation and role-sharing between the Medical Data Space program and the Data-Centric Hospitals program
02 · VISION

Three core values
holding up one healthcare system

VALUE · 01

Health equity

Close the gap in medical access across urban and rural areas, income groups and disease categories. With AI triage, tele-collaboration and remote solutions, essential care can be delivered anywhere in the country without quality variation.

Equity across all tiers
VALUE · 02

Sustainable health-insurance finances

Restructure the health-insurance spending pattern — KRW 83 trillion a year on chronic disease — with predictive, preventive and self-management AI. Curb unnecessary admissions, tests and duplicate prescriptions, and strengthen early intervention at the primary-care level.

₩83T annual chronic-disease cost
VALUE · 03

Biohealth innovation

Localise and globally compete in medical-AI devices, novel drugs and digital therapeutics. Vertical AI, regional innovation ecosystems and regulatory sandboxes accelerate domestic companies' access to clinical settings.

Biohealth AI-native industry
03 · PRINCIPLES

Redesign the structure,
not just the technology

Without a homegrown AI model, real innovation in Korean medicine is impossible.

Joon Beom Seo TF Lead · Founding President, Korean Society of Medical AI

What we need is a structural redesign, not a technology-first transition.

KHIDI Perspective Vol. 5 No. 2 · Dec 2025
04 · COMMITTEE

Experts gathered at the intersection
of medicine, data and industry

Chair, Science Subcommittee · Oversight
Cha-Ok Suh
Seoul National University / Professor
Subcommittee Lead
Joon Beom Seo
Founding President, Korean Society of Medical AI / Lead, AI Basic Healthcare Subcommittee, National AI Strategy Committee / Department of Radiology, Asan Medical Center
Secretary
Soo-Yong Shin
Kakao Healthcare / Head of Advanced Technology Lab
Science Subcommittee members · 3
Jong Chul Ye
KAIST Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI / Professor
Hoon Sang Lee
RIGHT Foundation / Director of Strategic Planning
Won Chul Cha
Samsung Medical Center / Head, Data Innovation Center
AI Basic Healthcare Subcommittee advisors · 4
Jin Seok Kim
Seoul Women's University / Professor
Geon-Hee Park
Pyeongchang County Health & Medical Center / Director
Han-Joo Yoo
Naver Cloud / Group Lead
Se Young Jung
Seoul National University Bundang Hospital / Chief Information Officer
Cross-subcommittee liaison members · 4
Social
Jung-Nam Kim
KAIST Graduate School of Future Strategy / Distinguished Professor
Public AX
Sung Pil Park
KAIST Graduate School of Future Strategy / Professor
Global
Jong-Hong Jeon
ETRI / Principal Researcher
Global
Helen Hong
Seoul Women's University / Professor
Secretariat · National AI Strategy Committee
Sang Hoon Song Director-General, Secretariat
Secretariat, National AI Strategy Committee
Sang Jin Kim Director, Policy Planning Bureau
Secretariat, National AI Strategy Committee
Kyung Tae Yoo Head, Regulatory Innovation Team
Secretariat, National AI Strategy Committee

* Source · Official membership composition of the AI Basic Healthcare Subcommittee, Science Subcommittee of the National AI Strategy Committee.

05 · ACTIVITY

17 regular meetings
and 5 months of intensive review

From the first regular meeting in November 2025 through to the subcommittee reorganisation in April 2026, the AI Basic Healthcare TF reviewed ministry programs, ran FM seminars, held roundtables with public agencies, and tracked progress against the AI Action Plan.

17
Regular meetings
6
Ministries reviewed
14
FY27 new programs reviewed
6 mo.
Period of activity
Meeting
Seminar / Roundtable
Milestone
Networking
November 2025
Nov 11
Telegram group opened · member introductions Milestone
TF Lead Joon Beom Seo opened a pre-launch communication channel for the AI Basic Healthcare TF. All 14 members completed their introductions, ahead of the President's announcement of the AI Action Plan at the end of November.
Nov 24
1st kick-off meeting Meeting
  • AI Strategy Committee meeting room, 16F Seoul Square; attended by Vice-Chair Lim Moon-Young and the Director-General of the Secretariat
  • Discussion of the AI Basic Healthcare TF mission and operating plan; regular meetings fixed for every Tuesday at 07:30
  • Shared the status of FKTU/KCTU opposition to disclosure of health-insurance data (Shin)
Dec 2
Written briefings requested from ministries · pre-review begins Milestone
  • Written briefings requested from MoHW, MSIT and MOTIE on the history, status and plans for regional essential-care AI
  • Discussed naming and budget issues for the Medical Data Space (Mayo Project)
  • "Inter-ministry competition has blocked data sharing — we have to fix that this time round" (Seo)
Dec 8
2nd meeting materials circulated · written feedback collected Meeting
  • MoHW and MSIT presentation materials circulated in advance; written feedback collected from members
  • Jung: a PHM platform and care-data linkage are essential to strengthening primary care
  • Kim: concern over the absence of an integrated medical–care approach, and ambiguity at the boundary of AI and DX
December 2025
Dec 9
2nd meeting · follow-up discussion Meeting
  • Agreement to pursue AX and DX in parallel, starting from regional, essential and public care (RGP) → moving toward an FM-based foundation
  • Domain-specific FM: domestic vendor models from pre-training onward, with multiple models allowed (MoHW position)
  • Strengthening primary-care AI — expand beyond telemedicine into clinical-capacity building (proposal by Jung)
Dec 23
3rd regular meeting Meeting
  • In-person briefing from MOTIE; integrated review with MoHW, MSIT and MOTIE
  • Presentation by Park: experience applying smart health to revitalising primary care in underserved areas
  • Proposal of the "AI-Ready Basic Healthcare System" concept (Cha) — "the reason AX isn't happening is that DX hasn't happened"
January 2026
Jan 6
4th regular meeting Meeting
  • Began reviewing the FY26 programs relevant to AI Basic Healthcare
  • Reviewed feedback on the draft AI Action Plan — 3 public comments + 2 ministry comments
  • Seminar presentation by Director Eun Sil Ko
Jan 8
Ministry-program review sprint assigned Milestone
Member review schedule confirmed — Cha (1/13), Shin (1/13), Ye (1/20), Seo (1/26), Jeon (added).
Jan 13
5th regular meeting Meeting
  • Briefing on 2 MSIT programs: Gangwon Medical-AX Pilot Hub and Digital Healthcare AI-Convergence Education Hub
  • Reviewed reference materials on a Medical AI Data Center
Jan 20
6th regular meeting Meeting
  • Briefing on 4 MOTIE sub-programs: Healthcare Multimodal AI Platform, AI-Convergence Aesthetic Medical Devices, Physical AI Medical Robotics, Biomedical AI Commercialisation
Jan 26
7th regular meeting Meeting
  • Briefing from MoHW / MFDS: National Integrated Bio Big-Data R&D, Fast-track Commercialisation Support for AI-Applied Products
  • Confirmed Feb–Mar schedule (healthcare FM seminar, public-agency roundtables, ministry progress reviews, etc.)
February 2026
Feb 3
8th — Healthcare Foundation Model Seminar Seminar
  • Jong Chul Ye on international FM trends; Han-Joo Yoo (Naver) on applying FM to regional, essential and public care (RGP)
  • Director Jung-Hwan Park (MoHW) attended; discussion on FHIR-based data standards
  • Held as an open seminar
Feb 13
9th — Joint MoHW / MSIT Session on AI Basic Healthcare Strategy Meeting
  • Briefings on MoHW's AI Basic Healthcare strategy and MSIT's draft plan for an "AI-Specialised Hospital Network"
  • Discussion on a framework to align the two ministries' strategies
Feb 24
10th — Roundtable with Public Healthcare Institutions on AI Strategy Roundtable
  • HIRA, NHIS, NCC and KDCA — each presented their short- and long-term AI plans
  • Discussion on data-release approaches tied to the Action Plan, and on combining public and private data for joint use
Feb 25
AI Action Plan Dashboard Built Milestone
Member Jong-Hong Jeon — built and shared an unofficial Action Plan dashboard using agentic AI in under an hour
March 2026
Mar 3
11th — MFDS AX Strategy + Global Health Seminar Seminar
  • MFDS briefing on its AX strategy
  • Member Hoon-Sang Lee — seminar on the outlook for medical AI in global health
Mar 10
12th — First Review of MoHW Policy Recommendations Meeting
  • Briefing on the progress of MoHW-led policy recommendations under the AI Action Plan
  • Discussion on linking healthcare AI to ODA — update on collaboration with the Prime Minister's Office, MOFA and KOICA
Mar 11
Academic Paper Published from Task Force Work Milestone
Co-authored by Se Young Jung, Rep. Ji-Ho Cha and Prof. Sang-Min Park (Seoul National University) — published in the Journal of the Korean Medical Association (covers Task Force activities)
Mar 17
13th — Review of MSIT Policy Recommendations Meeting
Briefing on the progress of MSIT-led policy recommendations; discussion of conflicts and overlap across data-space initiatives
Mar 25
Task Force → Subgroup Reorganisation Milestone
  • Full reorganisation of the National AI Strategy Committee — AI Basic Healthcare formally converted into a "Subgroup" within the Science Division
  • Future meeting schedule restructured; joint-session framework with the Social Division established
Mar 31
14th — Task Force's Final Regular Meeting Meeting
  • Second review of MoHW-led policy recommendation implementation
  • April 21 joint session with the Social Division (09:30) confirmed
April 2026
Apr 7
Subgroup 1st — MND Review + HIMSS International Trends Roundtable Roundtable
  • Review of MND-led policy recommendation implementation
  • Roundtable on international healthcare AI trends from HIMSS (English-language presentation)
Apr 14
Subgroup 2nd — KMDF & KHIS Briefings Meeting
  • Briefings from the Korea Medical Device Development Fund (KMDF) and the Korea Health Information Service (KHIS)
  • Action Plan implementation-review checklist distributed; member feedback collected
Apr 15
Review Assignments for 14 New 2027 AI Programmes Milestone
  • Review of 14 new 2027 R&D programmes submitted by KDCA and MOTIE — assigned to individual members
  • Member Jong-Hong Jeon — special assignment on overlap checks between new and existing programmes (using the dashboard)
Apr 21 (today)
Subgroup 3rd Regular Meeting + Joint Session with the Social Division Meeting
  • 07:30–09:00 Subgroup 3rd Regular Meeting — review of new 2027 AI R&D programmes (KDCA, MOTIE)
  • 09:30–11:00 Joint Session with the Social Division and AI Basic Healthcare
    • Briefing on progress in shaping the AI Welfare & Care Innovation Plan
    • Briefing on AX progress in chronic-disease response and the road ahead
  • Venue: Seoul Square 16F, AI Strategy Committee Meeting Rooms 3–5 (416 Hangang-daero, Jung-gu, Seoul)
  • ※ Minutes will be added once the session concludes.
06 · GOVERNANCE

Government & Public Institutions
the Task Force has engaged with

Key institutions the Task Force has briefed, consulted and reviewed in connection with the AI Basic Healthcare agenda.

Tier 1 Central Government · Ministries Policy · Programme Leadership · Budget
LEAD
MoHW
Ministry of Health and Welfare
AI Basic Healthcare · FM · Training Data
CO-LEAD
MSIT
Ministry of Science and ICT
Sovereign FM · National Data Integration Platform
PART
MOTIE
Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy
AI medical devices · biomedical commercialisation
PART
MND
Ministry of National Defense
Military health data · AI/AX pilots
PART
KDCA
Korea Disease Control & Prevention Agency
AI for infectious-disease forecasting · public-health data
Tier 2 Implementing Public Institutions · Specialised Agencies R&D · Data Standards · Programme Operations
EXEC · Data Standards
KHIS
Korea Health Information Service
↳ Under MoHW
EXEC · R&D Industry
KHIDI
Korea Health Industry Development Institute
↳ Under MoHW
EXEC · Medical Devices
KMDF
Korea Medical Device Development Fund
↳ MoHW · MSIT · MOTIE · MFDS
EXEC · Data Infrastructure
NIA
National Information Society Agency
↳ Under MSIT
EXEC · Cancer Data & Research
NCC
National Cancer Center
↳ Under MoHW
Tier 3 Regulatory · Assessment · Financial Bodies Approvals · Reimbursement · Financial Monitoring
OVERSIGHT · Approvals
MFDS
Ministry of Food and Drug Safety
AI medical-device approval · SaMD
OVERSIGHT · Reimbursement
HIRA
Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service
AI reimbursement & benefit assessment
OVERSIGHT · Finance
NHIS
National Health Insurance Service
Health-insurance financial monitoring & impact analysis