Korea opens access to cancer data of 2 million patients

Researchers in South Korea can now access an expanded big-data repository on 2.26 million cancer patients.

The Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), together with the National Cancer Center and the Korea Health Information Service, has recently announced the addition of more data to the K-CURE Public Cancer Library. 

According to a press release, access to K-CURE data, which includes anonymised data on registered cancer patients, insurance eligibility and claims, and mortality, has been expanded to cover data from 2012 to 2020.

Additionally, the dataset on COVID-19 infection and vaccination from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency has been added to the public data library. 

After securing the necessary permits, researchers can access public cancer data through designated data utilisation centres.

Korea launches $25M AI drug discovery project

The MOHW has also recently announced that it started a joint project with the Ministry of Science and ICT to discover and develop new drugs using AI technology.

In a statement, the ministry said the 34.8 billion won ($25 million) project will build an AI-driven ADME/T prediction model to discover new drug candidates. This will be developed through an AI training platform based on federated learning, a machine learning technique that taps into data from multiple, decentralised sources without exchanging or moving them. 

The project, run by the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association, has chosen 20 participating organisations, including pharmaceutical companies and universities, to enhance and verify the resulting AI model. 

Thailand's Siriraj Hospital deploys AI for lymphoma diagnosis

The Faculty of Medicine at Siriraj Hospital of Mahidol University has recently deployed AI to support the diagnosis of lymphoma.

Based on a press statement, the hospital started utilising an object detection algorithm to spot and count centroblast cells in Hematoxylin and Eosin-stained whole slide images. 

"This development is significant for lymphoma grading, facilitating more precise patient classification into stages 1, 2, or 3 based on the progress of the disease," it explained.

Siriraj Hospital has been deploying AI across its departments since 2018. By year-end, it plans to introduce AI to analyse mammograms and CT brain scans.