Introduction to Digital Health Innovations
The city government of Seoul in South Korea has partnered with the Ministry of Health and Welfare to assist health and medical startups in harnessing medical and health data from hospitals. This partnership aims to support the development of new digital technologies, including AI-driven solutions, by providing access to de-identified and anonymized data from hospitals.
Seoul’s Initiative to Support Startups
Based on the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s announcement, they will choose seven startups to help connect with 43 hospitals currently providing access to data for research and development. Up to 50 million won (around $35,000) will also be provided as business funding alongside expert consultation in medical data analysis and research conduct.
Expansion of eHealth Services in Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s eHealth mobile health app has added a new feature that allows users to view pathology reports. According to the Health Bureau, users can now view these reports on the Investigations function 14 days after their release by the Hospital Authority, Department of Health, and private healthcare providers.
Availability of Pathology Reports
As of February, all public health settings and 40 private providers in nearly 100 sites are uploading pathology reports to Hong Kong citizens’ eHealth accounts. Since it was launched in 2021, eHealth now provides access to nine EHR types, with more coming, including radiology images, Chinese medicine prescription records, and dental check-up records and conditions.
Application of NLP in Pathology Data
South Korea’s National Cancer Center has demonstrated the use of natural language processing models in extracting key information from free-entry, semi-structured breast pathology reports. The center’s research team fine-tuned existing NLP models developed by Google (BERT-basic, BioBERT, ClinicalBERT) using 1,215 breast cancer pathology reports, achieving a high accuracy of 96% and above in formalizing these reports.
Benefits of NLP in Pathology Data
According to the researchers, hospitals were challenged by the tedious work involved in converting volumes of unstructured pathology reports into a structured format, which is essential for cancer research. The use of NLP models can help overcome this challenge by automating the process of extracting key information from pathology reports.
Conclusion
The recent developments in digital health innovations in South Korea and Hong Kong demonstrate the potential of technology in improving healthcare services. The use of data analytics, AI, and NLP can help support the development of new digital technologies, improve the efficiency of healthcare services, and enhance patient care.
FAQs
- What is the purpose of Seoul’s partnership with the Ministry of Health and Welfare?
Seoul’s partnership with the Ministry of Health and Welfare aims to support health and medical startups in harnessing medical and health data from hospitals to develop new digital technologies. - What is the new feature added to Hong Kong’s eHealth mobile health app?
The new feature added to Hong Kong’s eHealth mobile health app allows users to view pathology reports. - What is the application of NLP in pathology data?
NLP is used to extract key information from free-entry, semi-structured breast pathology reports, achieving a high accuracy of 96% and above in formalizing these reports.
