• funding Stage : Pre-Series A
• Raising Amount : KRW 1.5 B
• Desired Fundraising Timeframe : 3~4Q 2024

One of the common frustrations patients experience after a consultation is realizing they forgot to mention a symptom or did not receive sufficient explanations about their condition and precautions. This is a frequent occurrence for many.

In South Korea, the number of patients per physician is three times the OECD average, resulting in an average consultation time of less than 5 minutes. Given this, it is challenging for physicians to have sufficient time to ask about symptoms, make accurate diagnoses, issue appropriate prescriptions, and provide detailed explanations and warnings.

Physicians may be left with concerns about whether they have made the correct diagnosis and whether they have communicated warnings effectively. Meanwhile, patients often leave the clinic feeling dissatisfied due to perceived unkindness or inadequate explanations.

Mediark aims to address these issues through innovative medical interview. CEO Lee Chan-hyung, inspired by his experience as a military doctor working with underserved soldiers, envisioned a service to improve medical interview. Soldiers, after reporting symptoms to non-specialist superiors, would visit military clinics or hospitals, sometimes leading to serious conditions or disease spread due to underestimated symptoms.

“Even a simple cough needs to be assessed for potential underlying conditions like pneumonia or asthma, and proper medical interview is fundamental. If medical interview is flawed, accurate diagnosis becomes difficult,” emphasizes CEO Lee.

Despite recognizing the importance of medical interview, many are skeptical about its business potential, noting that while many startups explore this area, none have achieved significant results.

Mediark confidently asserts its competitive edge. Its core strength lies in creating a system tailored to the needs of medical professionals, developed by physicians who understand these needs firsthand. Mediark’s team includes doctors who have the capability to develop the service themselves, ensuring that the solution is optimized for actual use in medical settings.

Mediark has developed “SIMPTOMI” and “SIMTOMI-CARE” services, utilizing its own medical database and AI-based language models to analyze thousands of symptoms and diseases. This service aims to provide accurate and fast diagnoses by summarizing results for physicians, significantly reducing their workload. The future integration with Electronic Medical Records (EMR) is expected to further improve diagnostic accuracy and time efficiency.

Mediark’s competitiveness is increasingly recognized in the market. The company has partnered with over 1,000 medical institutions and is working with local governments like Incheon and Pohang to enhance public healthcare.

Another competitive advantage of Mediark is its multilingual medical interview and translation system, addressing global service environments. This system helps mitigate diagnostic errors due to language barriers faced by foreign tourists or workers visiting domestic hospitals.

Founded in April 2022, Mediark has gained recognition for its technology, being selected as a resident company at Seoul Bio Hub and receiving the Seoul National University Medical School Dean’s Award at the D.CAMP D-Day in December 2022. The company also secured seed investment in April 2023, accelerating its business growth.

What Problems Does Mediark Aim to Solve?

Mediark seeks to resolve challenges faced by both medical professionals and patients through innovative medical interview services.

With the increasing patient load per physician, the burden on medical staff grows, making it difficult to provide high-quality care. Given the average consultation time of just 4.6 minutes in South Korea, allocating sufficient time for thorough medical interview is challenging. Repetitive questions and answers can also lead to fatigue for medical staff. Patients often miss critical details when describing their symptoms, affecting diagnostic accuracy.

Inadequate medical interview due to system limitations and time constraints can lead to incomplete medical records and compromised diagnosis quality.

Patients may struggle to gauge the severity and potential complications of their symptoms due to a lack of medical knowledge. Furthermore, short consultation times can result in patients failing to mention minor symptoms or family history, reducing diagnostic accuracy.

For foreigners, language barriers further complicate accurate diagnosis. The increase in foreign tourists and workers exacerbates this issue, making it challenging for them to accurately convey their conditions and potentially leading to reluctance in seeking medical care.

Mediark aims to address these issues by supporting medical staff with advanced medical interview and record-keeping tools, and facilitating communication between foreign patients and healthcare providers to improve diagnostic accuracy and healthcare quality.

How Does Mediark Solve These Problems?

Mediark uses AI for pre-consultation and automated record programs, employing a medical language model for symptom analysis and summary, and offering multilingual support. It provides tailored medical information on suspected conditions and appropriate specialties, and offers a service that can be used globally without language barriers.

The focus is on creating a medical interview system that meets medical professionals’ needs. It must allow patients to accurately express their symptoms, capture and predict connections with other conditions comprehensively, and summarize key points effectively.

Mediark’s AI-based system, utilizing a large medical language model (LLM), addresses these needs. By partnering with over 1,000 medical institutions and pharmacies, it has demonstrated the ability to reduce history-taking and record-keeping time by over 60%, improve diagnostic accuracy, and increase productivity.

Moreover, the development of multilingual and translation systems helps address health disparities between locals and foreigners.

What Are Mediark’s Competitive Advantages or Technological Strengths?

Mediark’s competitive edge lies in its specialized medical database, built by physicians, and its capability to implement services in multiple languages, ensuring global scalability.

The team consists of physicians with service development skills, allowing them to understand and address the needs and feedback of medical professionals effectively. Mediark’s service, which includes precise summary and real-time translation features, maximizes convenience and efficiency for healthcare providers.

The system’s accuracy has been validated to be 94% in alignment with specialists’ judgments, and its technology has received international certification.

What Products/Services Does Mediark Offer, and What Is Their Current Status?

Mediark offers two main services: the “SIMTOMI” app for patients and the “SIMTOMI-CARE” program for medical institutions. Both services are integrated to provide a comprehensive solution for patients and healthcare providers.

The SIMTOMI app allows patients to receive analysis and summaries of their symptoms in their preferred language, helping them understand their condition and determine appropriate care.

The SIMTOMI-CARE service assists medical professionals by providing pre-consultation medical interview and record-keeping support. It can be used with kiosks in clinics or through pre-consultation links sent via appointment reminders.

Mediark’s services are optimized for various healthcare environments and are well-received by both patients and medical professionals.

What Is the Target Market Size and Key Target Customers for Mediark?

The domestic medical market exceeds 100 trillion KRW, with increasing demand due to the aging population and high healthcare utilization rates.

The SIMTOMI app targets all domestic and foreign patients visiting medical institutions but focuses on expanding the user base rather than generating direct revenue from patient fees in South Korea.

The core revenue model is the SIMTOMI-CARE service for medical professionals, with a subscription fee for each doctor. In the short term, hospitals and clinics will be the main customers, with long-term aspirations to serve all domestic healthcare providers.

The SIMTOMI service also targets the international market, including foreign residents and tourists. With over 2 million foreign residents and 3 million tourists, including 250,000 medical tourists, there is significant potential for growth in this sector.

What Is Mediark’s Business Model?

Mediark’s business model involves using the B2C SIMTOMI app to expand the user base and then integrating it with the B2B SIMTOMI-CARE service to generate revenue.

Due to the constraints of not being able to charge patients directly, the SIMTOMI app will focus on foreign residents in South Korea and support the growth of the SIMTOMI-CARE service.

The B2B SIMTOMI-CARE service charges a monthly subscription fee per medical professional, with additional revenue from kiosk rentals for participating hospitals.

Internationally, Mediark plans to monetize the SIMTOMI app by offering one-click pharmaceutical delivery services in collaboration with foreign companies.

What Achievements Has Mediark Made So Far?

Mediark has partnered with 1,085 hospitals and pharmacies and is expanding its SIMTOMI-CARE subscriptions. The company has established collaborations with various local governments and healthcare institutions to improve foreign patient care.

Since its establishment in April 2022, Mediark has won awards at startup competitions and secured seed funding in 2023. The company has also received international recognition for its technology.

What Are Mediark’s Core Competencies?

Mediark stands out due to its ability to integrate advanced technology with medical expertise, developing a system that meets the specific needs of physicians. The team includes both medical professionals and experienced developers, providing a deep understanding of medical requirements and enabling effective system improvements.

Mediark’s extensive network of R&D specialists, medical institutions, and industry associations supports rapid service refinement and expansion.

How Has the Seoul Bio Hub Program Contributed to Mediark’s Growth?

Joining Seoul Bio Hub in August 2022 provided Mediark with a supportive environment and minimized initial costs. The program offered opportunities to connect with investors and receive media exposure, contributing significantly to the company’s growth.

Why Should Mediark Seek Investment?

Integration of Advanced Technology and Medical Expertise: Mediark has developed a multi-layered history-taking system and a multilingual summary system based on medical language models, with patents and international certifications.

Established Partnerships and Revenue Models: With over 1,085 medical institutions and a network of 100+ specialists, Mediark has secured a steady revenue stream through its subscription model and is positioned for rapid growth.

Global Expansion Potential: Mediark’s technology supports global scalability with multilingual capabilities and a team experienced in international business, promising significant growth and global market presence.

Mediark aims to enhance patient diagnosis and doctor efficiency by innovating medical history taking through AI, streamlining processes, and supporting multilingual services for global healthcare improvement.