South Korea’s Konyang University Hospital will adopt an artificial intelligence system based on IBM’s Watson for Oncology, becoming the country’s third medical institution to embrace AI for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

SK C&C said Thursday that it signed an agreement with the university to bring IBM’s Watson for Oncology to the hospital and to digitize the hospital’s administrative system using Aibril — the firm’s big data and cloud computing platform powered by IBM’s AI software.

In Korea, Gachon University Gil Medical Center in Incheon and Pusan National University Hospital in Busan have also brought Watson for Oncology into their cancer treatment facilities.

IBM's Watson for Oncology is designed to study and analyze a patient’s medical records and a vast database of cancer-related research papers to recommend the optimal treatment option. It aims to help doctors decide the best cancer treatment program according to the patient's specific conditions.

“Cancer patients living outside of Seoul have had to visit hospitals in the capital city for second opinion. With Watson for Oncology, they will no longer have to search for multiple hospitals,” said Konyang University Hospital’s Director Choi Won-jun.

“By providing the hospital’s excellent medical staff with a new AI-powered medical system, we expect to bring top-notch medical services to our cancer patients,” Choi said.

Konyang University Hospital will begin running its AI-powered cancer treatment system from next month, it said. The hospital is also looking to open a new hospital specializing in robot-assisted surgery and AI-based precision medicine services by May 2020.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)