South Korea designates 5 centres for public medical data analysis

The South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare has officially launched designated centres for safe medical data utilisation.

The ministry has named five centres which have been equipped with physical, technical, and managerial security measures to allow the safe utilisation of public medical and clinical data for research purposes. 

These centres are the Korea Health and Medical Information Service in Seoul, Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center in Daegu, Wonju Severance Christian Hospital in Wonju, Chungnam National University Hospital in Chungnam, and the National Cancer Center (NCC) in Gyeonggi.

Moreover, the ministry announced that the use of cancer data from the NCC's K-CURE project via the data utilisation centres will begin in June. 

South Korea expedites commercialisation of VR therapy for visual impairment

The South Korean Health Ministry has recently designated a VR-based software therapy visual impairment as an innovative medical device, accelerating its approval process.

Developed by local digital therapeutics company Nunaps, VIVID Brain is the first recognised South Korean DTx for improving visual impairment caused by brain damage. It provides visual perception training to enhance brain plasticity, veering from common sensory compensation and substitution techniques used to treat visual impairment. 

South Korea recently made changes in its approval process for novel medical devices to hasten their use in clinical settings.

VIVID Brain is still undergoing proof-of-concept studies to further obtain clinical use clearance in South Korea. 

Indonesia, Iran collaborate for telerobotic surgery

Indonesia and Iran have expanded their healthcare cooperation by launching a centre for telerobotic surgery.

The two governments have been testing the concept since 2021 at Hasan Sadikin Hospital in Bandung and Sardjito Hospital in Yogyakarta. It aims to eliminate geographical barriers to allow specialists to provide their services remotely to patients outside major cities and to collaborate with fellow specialists abroad. It also seeks to minimise post-surgical complications and reduce financial costs.