GC MediAI (032620.KS), the digital health affiliate of GC Green Cross Group, is embedding artificial intelligence into Uisarang, South Korea's leading electronic medical record (EMR) system, in a push to reinvent itself as a healthcare platform company. Building on an EMR base already installed at about 16,000 hospitals and clinics nationwide, the company aims to reshape its business by diversifying revenue across AI-assisted care, medical data and marketing, and platform fees.
GC MediAI unveiled the main features of its AI care solution, Uisarang AI, and its medium- to long-term business direction at a "Start, the Next Exam Room" media day held at the Conrad Seoul in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 26th. Uisarang AI is a care-support solution the company formally commercialized in July by combining AI with its existing Uisarang EMR. It reduces repetitive tasks across the entire care process — from reviewing a patient's past treatment history to real-time record-keeping and searching for diagnoses and prescriptions — so medical staff can focus more on communicating with patients. Using speech-to-text technology tailored to medical terminology, it transcribes doctor-patient conversations in real time and automatically organizes them into structured records that separate patient symptoms, the physician's assessment and the treatment plan; it then analyzes these to suggest appropriate diagnostic codes and candidate prescriptions. The tool includes an AI assistant that quickly summarizes key points from years of accumulated treatment records and test results, and it is designed to process medical data on GC MediAI's own infrastructure to strengthen the security and stability of medical information. After a visit, it can also sort and guide patients who need follow-up care, and it allows staff to check patient status or management metrics through natural-language queries.
GC MediAI's biggest asset is the medical-institution network it has built over 30 years. Beyond its network of more than 16,000 hospitals and clinics and some 8,000 pharmacies nationwide, its strengths include Ddocdoc, a patient platform with more than 12 million users. To maximize the reach of Uisarang AI, the company will offer the service free of charge through the end of the year. A full-scale shift in its revenue model is expected to begin with the launch of its next-generation cloud EMR, Uisarang Cloud, in March next year. The strategy is to move away from an installed-software EMR model toward one that generates recurring income from cloud subscription fees and charges for AI add-on services, and to expand into a platform business that earns onboarding, integration and transaction fees by connecting outside healthcare services. As digital touchpoints with medical institutions widen, synergies with the medical data and marketing business could grow as well, since new revenue can be secured both from companies selling products and services to doctors and pharmacists and by connecting outside service providers with hospitals and clinics.
Earnings that would underpin the shift in business structure are also improving. On a consolidated basis, GC MediAI posted revenue of 101.4 billion won ($73 million) and operating profit of 6.2 billion won ($4.5 million) in the first half of this year, up 7.9% and 302.3%, respectively, from a year earlier. In May, the company set a full-year consolidated operating profit target of 13.5 billion won, an 80% increase from the previous year.
Kim Jin-tae, CEO of GC MediAI, said, "Given this year's earnings growth, we expect to comfortably exceed our consolidated operating profit target of 13.5 billion won." Kim added, "With Uisarang AI, we want to help medical staff focus on their core work of treating patients, while going forward we will connect the cloud EMR with various services to expand into a Medical OS on which primary care runs."
