2016.09.09

KT(CEO Hwang Chang-Gyu, www.kt.com) has begun establishing their remote medical treatment services in Africa, and is starting next in Central Asia. KT formed a consortium with Pusan National University Hospital and Busan Techno Park for the project. The consortium worked with Kazakhstan's Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan School of Medicine, the Aktobe Ministry of Public Health and four other related organizations. On September the 8th they all signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), to go forward with creating a pilot project for digital health care.

The pilot project integrates the latest ICT (Information Communications Technologies) to create mobile health diagnostic service, using world class Korean medical technology to improve the level of Kazakhstani health care.

The infant mortality rate in Kazakhstan is 21.6 deaths per 1000, while the OECD average is 4.1. And the average life expectancy is 70.3 in Kazakhstan, compared to the OECD average of 80.5. The area of Kazakhstan is 27 times larger than that of South Korea. Spread out over that area, there are only 1,054 hospitals, with a total of just 120,000 hospital beds to treat people which are far less than adequate number of needed facilities.

In addition to that, 40% of the population resides in the countryside while 80% of medical staff are concentrated in large cities, resulting in a major imbalance in the distribution of medical resources. The arrival of remote medical treatment is expected to improve the local medical treatment as well as reduce the infant mortality rate.

KT will provide mobile diagnostic system. With this system, through small quantities of blood and urine samples, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and other can be diagnosed, even in areas lacking medical infrastructure. The pilot project will be run with the in the eastern part of the country in collaboration with Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty and with the help of Aktobe Public Hospital in the western part of the country. The collected health information will be sent to Health Information Center, which will be built at Al-Farabi National University. The Pusan National University Hospital medical team is planned to consult the Kazakhstan medical team during their trip to Pusan National University for medical training.

KT's future business development team leader Song Jae-ho said

"I'm looking forwrd to this pilot project helping to improve the healthcare environment in Kazakhstan's less favored isolated areas. Through this we are also gaining our first entry into the Eurasian Economic Union medical services market, consisting of five countries including Russia.”

Pusan National University Hospital's Fusion Medical Institute of Technology's lead Park Ing-min said

“In the short term digital health care will improve conditions. However in the medium to long term, Korea's electronic information records' big-data-technology, will help it to enter the Commonwealth of Independent States. In the CIS countries, health checks and general medical systems have not yet been integrated, meaning there is room for us to make a breakthrough in Kazakhstan's medical field."

Mayor of Busan Suh Byeong-su said

"I think this venture is a great opportunity for medical device businesses in the Busan area to advance into foreign markets. The project uses Busan Techno Park's business support abilities, in collaborations with local medical organizations and KT, to enter the medical markets of Central Asia or CIS countries."

President of Al-Farabi Public University Mutanov Galimkair Mutanovich said

"The introduction of the Korean model of digital healthcare should reduce the infant mortality rate, improve a weak point in our medical treatment system and lay the groundwork for the development of our medical health industry."

KT, the City of Busan, and Pusan University Hospital singed an agreement for the development of local medical service developments in 2014. Pursuing this goal the three organizations have entered into an agreement where they would develop a platform to remotely monitor the health of workers in the ocean industry as a trial run. In order to create health care innovations the companies have been engaging in various R&D projects. This project has been a joint research project as well as a pilot project, which has shown the technical skills and experience of the parties involved.

Since July, KT has been collaborating with the Yonsei Medical Center and the Rwanda Kigali National University Hospital, on a similar digital healthcare pilot project, which has already had an MOU signed. This is a first step in improving the healthcare environment in Africa.

※ Photo Description: KT, Pusan National University Hospital and Busan Techno Park representatives gathered in Al-Farabi National University located in Almaty, Kazakhstan for the signing of the MOU for the launching of the Kazakhstani Digital Healthcare pilot project.

ㅇ People appearing in the photo, starting from the left

① Lee Ho-suk, Pusan National University's thoracic surgery professor

② Kim Yeong-seok, Busan Techno Park's Special Industry Technologies' department head

③ An Yevgenyi, president of the consortium (and advisor to the president of Al-Farabi National University)

④ Mutanov Galimkair Mutanovich, President of Al-Farabi National University

⑤ Park Ing-min, director Pusan National University Hospital's Fusion Medical Institute of Technology's lead

⑥ Dilyara Kaidarova, director of KazIOR

⑦ Kim Min-seong, KT's Future Convergent Businesses Planning Department's Future Industries Development Team's Healthcare ICT team leader.

※ for more information contact: Kim Yeong-wan in the kt PR department (02-723-6370)

※ Reference Information

1. KT Consortium

2. Team Members: KT, Pusan University Hospital, Busan Techno Park, The Dongnam Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences

3. Role: Technology transfer

Investment and Project Finance support

Labor support

Development of digital healthcare for remote medical care with HIS-applied.

Implementation of localization and optimization for Kazakhstan

Education of local medical and technology teams

1. Kazakhstan

2. Team Members: Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, West Kazakhstan Marat Ospanov State Medical University, Kazakh Institute of Oncology and Radiology, Kazgiprotsvetmet LLP, Aktub Roentgen JSC, Aktobe Ministry of Health

3. Role: Supervision of the pilot testing of the remote medical treatment system

Submitting dissertations to scientific journals and development of new studies

Legislation, investment and translation consultations as well as intellectual property rights management and registration

Environmental impact assessment

International/Domestic Project Financing for sales to Kazakhstan Medial Institution and the Eurasian Economic Community

Market assessment and marketing

Reduction of import duties, surtax, commission fees, taxes and other costs

1. Areas of Cooperation

2. Remote treatment and radiation treatment research and development for local application

3. International and Kazakhstani bidding for research and development projects

4. Participation in international forums and publication to scientific journals