KT to open medical checkup center in Hanoi, Vietnam

South Korea's KT Corp. next year will launch a medical checkup center in Hanoi, Vietnam, under a strategy to advance its digital healthcare business in the Southeast Asian country, which is considered to have a poor medical environment.

The telecom giant is also pursuing telemedicine services there using artificial intelligence (AI).

The company on Sunday said it will open the center by the first half of next year with a daily capacity of 100 people.

"We are the first domestic information and communications technology company to enter the medical checkup sector abroad," said Lim Seung-hyuk, head of KT's Digital and Bio Health Business Group. "We will enter new fields unrelated to communications by applying communications data and AI technology to medicine."

The center will occupy one floor of a building in Hanoi covering 3,300 square meters. Millions of US dollars will go into the project's initial phase by next year including rental of CT and other medical equipment and labor costs.

The Hanaro Medical Foundation, which operates two such centers in Seoul, will provide medical consulting.

KT targets as its main consumers the top 10% income earners of Hanoi's population of nine million, or 900,000 residents. They include staff of Samsung Electronics' partner companies among the estimated 70,000 Koreans living there.

The Vietnamese medical environment is considered far behind Korea's. Of 76 hospitals that offer medical checkups in Vietnam, just eight provide comprehensive examinations.

KT's target in the first year of its health screening project next year is 30,000 people. With one checkup priced at 600,000 won ($447) per person, quick recoup of the company's investment is expected.

The business sector considers this an unconventional attempt by KT, which is not a medical company.

"With rapid population aging and rise in the number of chronic disease patients, the medical market is shifting from diagnosis and treatment to prevention," Lim said. "This puts the odds in favor of data-driven and personalized medical care."

This project marks the start of KT's expansion of its digital healthcare unit at home and abroad. KT Healthcare Vina, a Vietnam-based medical corporation set up in January, also launched on Sunday a pilot service of contactless care for cancer and chronic disease patients.

In cooperation with the Vietnam National Cancer Center and Hanoi Medical University Hospital, KT selected 100 patients of gastric cancer surgery and 240 of diabetes for pilot projects. It will also offer the health management app Doctor Around for the patients for use in telemedicine, AI diagnostic and health management services.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com