At 26, Kevin Choi obtained a diagnosis that changed his life: glaucoma.
It is a progressive eye disease that damages the optic nerve, often without symptoms until it is too late. As the doctors caught him, Choi had lost half of his vision.
A training engineer – and a former rifleman of the South Korea’s Marine Corps – Choi thought he had a solid handful on his health.
“I was really frustrated at not noticing it,” he said.
The 2016 diagnosis always gives it a “panic”. But it also triggered something big.
That year, Choi joined his doctor, a glass surgeon, with Cofound Mediwhale, a Healthtech startup based in South Korea.
Their mission is to use AI for Associate diseases before symptoms appear and cause irreversible damage.
“I am the person who feels the value of this the most,” said Choi.
Technology can project cardiovascular, renal and eye diseases through non -invasive retinal analyzes.
Mediwhale technology is mainly used in South Korea, and hospitals in Dubai, Italy and Malaysia have also adopted it.
Mediwhale said in September that she had raised $ 12 million in her A2 series funding, led by the Korea Development Bank.
Antoine Mutin for Bi
AI can help rapid and early screening
Choi thinks that AI is the most powerful in the first stage of care: screening.
AI, he said, can help health care providers make faster and smarter decisions-the type that can differentiate between early intervention and irreversible damage.
Under certain conditions, “the speed is the most important,” said Choi. This is true for “silent killers” like heart and renal diseases, and progressive conditions such as glaucoma – which often have no early symptoms but, without control, can cause permanent damage.
For patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes or obesity, the issues are even higher. Early complications can cause dementia, liver disease, heart problems or kidney failure.
The more these risks are identified, the more doctors – and patients – have.
Choi said mediwhale AI facilitates sorting by reporting that is at low risk, which needs surveillance and should see a doctor immediately.
Patient screening at the first point of contact does not require “very deep knowledge,” said Choi. This type of rapid risk assessment with low friction is the place where AI shines.
The mediwhale tool allows patients to bypass traditional procedures – including blood tests, computed tomography and ultrasounds – when screening for cardiovascular and renal risks.
Choi also said that when patients see their risks visualized through retinal analyzes, they tend to take it more seriously.
Choi has said that AI can help health care providers make faster and smarter decisions – the type that can differentiate between early intervention and irreversible damage. Antoine Mutin for Bi
AI will not replace doctors
Despite his belief in power of AI, Choi is clear: it is not a replacement for doctors.
Patients want to hear the opinion of a human doctor and reassurance.
Choi also said that medicine is often more compatible than a clean data set. Although AI is “brilliant to solve defined problems”, it does not have the capacity to navigate the nuances.
“Medicine often requires a different dimension of decision-making,” he said.
For example: how will a specific treatment affect someone’s life? Will they follow? How does their emotional state affect their condition? These are all variables that algorithms still have trouble reading, but doctors can pick up. These ideas “go beyond simple data points,” said Choi.
And when patients grow back – say, hesitating to start a new medication – doctors are trained both to understand why and guide them.
They are able to “navigate the irrational behavior of patients while anchoring quantitative data decisions,” he said.
“These are complex decision-making processes that extend far beyond the simple processing of information.”
