Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

[MND-MSIP] Looking after soldiers’ health with ‘medical big data’

Medical information covering 1.1 billion cases accumulated since 1998
Possible to predict disease epidemics and utilize customized medical supports
Engaging in the project until 2019…“personal information protection comes first”

A research project is going to be carried out that aims to improve the quality of military medical services through Big Data, by using the medical information of 600,000 soldiers.

On December 6, the MND announced that it was going to promote ‘cooperative research on military soldiers medical information big data’ from next year until 2019, working with the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (hereinafter referred to as MSIP).

The R&D cooperation on big data analysis conducted by the MND and MSIP will focus on ▲predicting epidemic diseases by region and season, ▲providing customized medical support for military soldiers, ▲securing speed and accuracy through the introduction of an AI-based diagnosis system, ▲building management efficiency and preemptive medical support through the prediction of the necessary drugs and equipment, and ▲private study support using medical data from the post-adolescence age group (19-25 years old).

There are 2,500 soldiers being provided with medical care, prescribed drugs and nursed at 19 military hospitals and 1,200 medical detachments a day on average, based on which the MND has been collecting and storing the medical information data from up to 90 million cases every year in the Defense Medical Information System (DEMIS). The medical information stored in DEMIS since 1998 now reaches 1.1 billion cases.

As this medical information is limited mainly to post-adolescence who get medical care and data is standardized and easy to analyse, it is considered to be quite high.

While the MND uses this information for simple statistical analyses, such as tracking the number of patients per month, etc., it is planned to utilize this data to improve the quality of medical services for soldiers through big data analysis.

In particular, the fact that DEMIS has data from 19 places that is classified by area can strengthen preventive function by sharing information with neighboring areas when an infectious disease breaks out in a certain area. In addition, it can also predict disease incidence through preparatory monitoring which refers to disease data with high incidence by season, as well as prepare prevention plans.

For example, tsutsugamushi disease (spread through mites), hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (spread through mice), leptospirosis (spread through animal faeces), which are infectious diseases with high incidence in autumn, can be predicted and prevented in an early stage by developing a real-time understanding of areas of origin, genetic information of the pathogen and the spread of the disease.

The MND is planning to encrypt personal information by applying the ‘personal information non-identification guideline’ so that protection of the personal information of soldiers comes first, before big data analysis is carried out.

Director General for Informatization Planning Park Rae-ho said, “We will minimize any losses of fighting power by diagnosing diseases in the earliest possible stage, and identify infectious diseases early through the big data analysis. Turning the negative image of the military hospital into a positive one can be an opportunity to create a culture in which parents feel more comfortable sending their sons to serve in the army, and ultimately solidify Korea's defense security.”

By Byeong-No, Yun < trylover@dema.mil.kr >
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