이 기사는 2022년 05월 13일 07:59 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

South Korea’s Kakao Healthcare is stepping up efforts to create an integrated digital healthcare platform by joining hands with a wide range of companies in the industry.

Kakao Healthcare, which was established as a company in the company (CIC), became a separate entity in March. Kakao Corp, the operator of the nation’s most-used messenger KakaoTalk, announced last month that it will invest 120 billion won ($93 million) in Kakao Healthcare.

The company is actively working with various digital healthcare companies after the separation. Kakao Healthcare appointed Hwang Hee, a former professor of the pediatrics department and the neuroscience center of Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, as the head of the company. Hwang served as executive vice president at electronic health record company ezCaretech.

Kakao Healthcare is seeking to establish medical big data by promoting partnerships with major domestic university hospitals that own huge medical data.

The company signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Seoul National University to discover joint research projects to develop a precision medicine platform optimized for Koreans.

Seoul National University Hospital established its precision medicine center in 2017 to build a genomic data-based precision medicine platform. Kakao’s partnership with the hospital is expected to help the company establish clinical trial data and internalize analysis capabilities.

Kakao Healthcare is expected to create synergies with Asan Kakao Medical Data Center, a joint venture between Kakao Investment and Asan Medical Center established in 2019. Hwang is expected to play a vital role in Asan Kakao Medical Data as well. Kakao Investment also increased its stake in big data firm PHI Digital Healthcare, a joint venture with Yonsei University Health System.

“With Hwang Hee joining the firm last year, Kakao’s medical and other healthcare data collection and platform establishment are likely to accelerate,” an industry source said. “It is meaningful that the firm is working with university hospitals that have accumulated huge amount of medical big data.”

Kakao Healthcare signed a MOU with Gininus with an aim to jointly promote direct-to-consumer (DTC) personal genetic diagnosis services and precision medicine artificial intelligence (AI) platform business at home and abroad.

Kakao is working with 40FY, Nuvi Lab, SkyLabs and Korea University Anam Hospital to expand its digital healthcare services. (Reporting by Sook Hong)