(image: KobizMedia/ Korea Bizwire) SEOUL, May 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will collect big data from medical records from local hospitals to pave the way for the development of effective and appropriate treatment plans for individual patients, the commerce ministry said Monday. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said it launched a task force composed of hospitals, research institutes and healthcare companies to jointly develop medical big data that can be used in the development of personalized medicine. Personalized medicine can offer treatment tailored to individuals but requires the establishment of a national database on genetics and other health-related information. The public-private partnership will collect the medical records of about 50 million people from 39 hospitals nationwide by 2020 to establish big data in the medical field. The records will not include patients’ personal information, the ministry said. The ministry said the project is aimed at establishing a medical platform to enable companies to use vast amounts of hospital data for new businesses and ease regulations to encourage innovation in the emerging field. (Yonhap)
South Korea is developing personalised health care by collecting data from 50 million hospital medical records. Photograph: Personal information will not be included in the data gathering, the ministry said.