“Once a patient is admitted, artificial intelligence immediately matches and assigns a room and medical staff.”
That is the vision Korea University Medical Center laid out for its planned “Dongtan Fourth Korea University Hospital,” which it aims to open in 2035. The center said the new facility will build on strengths of its hospitals in Anam, Guro and Ansan while moving beyond limits in integration and expansion, creating a new model: a smart, future hospital powered by autonomous AI.
Yoon Eul-sik, vice president for medical affairs at Korea University and head of Korea University Medical Center, held a news briefing Monday at the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul and said the Dongtan hospital would become “a medical hub covering the southern Seoul metropolitan area and a key institution that protects the regional medical delivery system.” He said it would present “a next-generation medical model as an advanced, smart AI-based future hospital.” The hospital is planned as a 700-bed facility, with a target opening in 2035.
The center said the AI-based smart hospital will concentrate future medical technologies and infrastructure, including digital pathology, an imaging center, a genetics center and cell therapy center, and a digital-twin preventive management center. It aims to build an optimized, patient-centered precision-medicine workflow and free medical staff from more than 80% of existing administrative work so they can spend more time with patients.
Hospital operations are to include an “agentic AI” digital command center. The system would analyze admissions and discharges, bed and operating room utilization, and staffing in real time to allocate resources. The medical center said it expects a seamless patient experience from appointments to care, tests, admission and discharge, while sharply reducing administrative burdens on clinicians.
Yoon also emphasized flexibility in design. “Given the pace of technological development, we are separating logistics and clinical routes and designing adaptable spaces that can be quickly reconfigured depending on circumstances,” he said.
The Dongtan hospital is also planned as a “life-cycle medical platform” that extends beyond acute care to rehabilitation and long-term support. A convalescent rehabilitation hospital and senior welfare housing would be linked to the main hospital so patients can move from treatment to rehabilitation and return to daily life. The rehabilitation hospital is expected to combine advanced rehabilitation equipment with research, the medical center said.
Yoon said the goal is to serve as the “final treatment institution” for southern Gyeonggi Province. He said the medical center aims to move away from a system in which patients with serious illnesses such as cancer and cardiovascular disease are sent to Seoul, and instead build a structure in which treatment is completed within the region.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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