Chapter 139: First Research (2)

“Sigh.”

Hong Changgi was still complaining nonstop. It wasn’t surprising, considering he had been cut off as a tail after following from the intensive care unit to here.

Taejin Jo chuckled at Hong Changgi’s antics. “My apologies.”

“Apologies? If you’re apologizing, then stop it!”

“Why are you acting like this with your fellow colleague? Suhyuk is already in his place.”

“You pushed me aside earlier when I was sitting where my friend used to be?”

“Taejin?”

“I said, ‘you pushed me aside.’ Did I not say that just now?”

Hong Changgi didn’t seem sorry at all, but Taejin Jo’s words were useless. Hong Changgi might have been tall, but he lacked charisma. On the other hand, Taejin Jo had both height and charm.

He forcefully pushed Shin Hyun-tae back down onto his bed like it was nothing more than a game of tug-of-war.

“Ugh.”

“The hospital is ridiculous. Ridiculous.” Shin Hyun-tae shook his head as he watched Hong Changgi being subdued and picked up the fragrant tea on the table.

Let’s calm down first…

It seemed that the man wasn’t so much of a temperamental personality to require tempering. However, there were many times when he felt he needed to restrain himself these days at the hospital.

“Hyung, honestly, you’re not crazy.”

“Haaah.”

Whenever Taejin called him hyung, it made things worse. Suhyuk gently tapped Shin Hyun-tae’s arm, which had turned noticeably darker compared to earlier.

“Professor. Shall we talk about our research first?”

“Huh? Oh, yes. Yes… Suhyuk…”

Yes, there was this guy. Even if professors were known for their bad habits of calling students hyung or hyung-nim, it wouldn’t matter as long as they had residents like Suhyuk to take care of things at Taehwa Medical Center. The thought of Suhyuk made him feel good. His heart softened and he nodded toward his resident.

“T-Then let’s begin.”

“Yes, right.”

“Good.”

Taejin Jo and Hong Changgi stopped chattering loudly and looked at Suhyuk. He recalled the brief conversation with Baru earlier and continued speaking.

“Manager An has already told me everything, so I’m sure you know what’s going on. Professors Jo and Hong might not be aware of this, so I will explain it once again.”

Professor Jo and Professor Hong… When their names were mentioned, his heart seemed to twist like waves crashing against rocks. He felt jealous of Taejin, who was laughing at the speed of others without knowing how fast he himself was running.

“Oh, wait a minute. Sorry, Suhyuk, but if you don’t need them, we can skip these two. It is okay. I’ll take responsibility.” That was why Suhyuk had asked him to leave.

“No, Manager An. We also need your data,” Suhyuk replied.

“Ah, yes. I see.”

What could he do? Someone needed to come up with ideas.

Moreover, it wasn’t just any person but Suhyuk. Shin Hyun-tae nodded helplessly. The other two professors looked at him with pitying expressions.

“Anyway…the message I was going to tell you earlier… Isn’t AI very hot these days?”

“That’s right.”

It wasn’t just the IT industry that valued AI so highly. In the medical field as well, especially in health care, AI had become indispensable long ago. Even though Taejin Jo and Hong Changgi showed some shortcomings, they were appointed as professors of medical centers due to their skills. Naturally, they each led one national project and attended several meetings per month with people who wanted to join them.

It was clear that they were aware of AI’s importance but felt it wasn’t their place to engage with it directly.

“Even at the International Conference on Pharmaceuticals, they have separate sessions for AI-related topics from last year onwards. According to my investigation, almost half of the sessions next year will be related to AI research.”

“Oh…half?”

“Yes. That is why Manager Shin Hyun-tae told me to focus more on AI research instead of new drug development.”

“Hm.”

“Well…”

Taejin and Hong Changgi both really wanted to do research on developing new drugs. They knew AI was important, but there was still much work to be done in terms of immediate needs in the field—medicine, specifically. As someone who worked as a professor in Hematology-Oncology, Taejin Jo had patients whose lives hung by a thread, so he understood better than anyone how desperately needed new medicines were.

A new drug isn’t easy.

However, realistically speaking, things weren’t going smoothly.

The biotechnology industry of Korea was still in its infancy. The country had yet to develop any groundbreaking new drugs. Shamefully, Taejin Jo himself had participated in clinical trials for foreign-developed medications.

Thus, Shin Hyun-tae’s decision could be considered both realistic and strategic. It wasn’t easy to become the chief physician of Taehwa Medical Center’s Internal Medicine Department.

“Originally, Watson represented medical AI several years ago. Our hospital even developed Baruda based on Watson.”

“Mm.”

Baruda…the artificial intelligence that caused Suhyuk’s leg injury. That is what all three here knew about it. So, he assumed Suhyuk frowned due to this incident.

“Are you benchmarking me? Or do I surpass Watson?”

It wasn’t like this when I first saw it.

“Wow… You’ve nurtured me so much, but I don’t know how to repay you…”

‘You live inside my head. Don’t you pay rent?’

“Wow…”

“In any case, please keep quiet. Can’t you see that I’m presenting?”

“Wow…I really… Wow…”

In fact, Baru started talking because of Suhyuk’s reaction, but everyone waited patiently for him to return to his senses. They were professors after all and had enough patience for such things.

“However, there is no longer any need for this type of AI development. This became even more apparent after Watson officially discontinued its research.”

“Uh-huh. That’s right.”

“It is not yet possible to make it a reality.”

Regardless of their personal feelings, professors were always at the forefront of academia. Although they weren’t directly connected with Watson, many of them had heard about his research and its progress. In particular, the professors from the Internal Medicine Department at Taehwa Hospital knew quite well about Watson’s research on AI.

“That’s why now there is active development of diagnostic support AI. Among them, Radiology and Pathology have models that are already commercialized or close to being commercialized.”

Due to rumors, the number of applicants for the Radiology department had decreased slightly last year—or was it the year before? The rumor was that artificial intelligence would replace radiologists.

However, there was still no artificial intelligence that could read medical images overall. There were plenty of AI programs that helped with diagnostics, though.

“Ah, I heard about it.”

“Especially for diagnosing necrosis, several studies have proven its utility. It has also been used to examine breast cancer slides.”

“Mm.”

“Hrmm.”

Suhyuk’s presentation was as perfect as always. His delivery, befitting an actor, was clear and at an appropriate pace; most importantly, his content was flawless. Naturally, Taejin Jo and Hong Changgi, who were hearing this information for the first time, found themselves completely absorbed by Suhyuk’s words. Even Shin Hyun-tae, who had already brought up similar points, turned fully toward Suhyuk.

“Then how should Internal Medicine apply this? This was my question. Manager Shin gave me homework.”

“Apply it to internal medicine…”

“Hm…” It didn’t immediately come to mind, but that was natural. He had never thought about it before. Even after talking with Suhyuk, he still hadn’t come up with any ideas.

Suhyuk waited for the professors to stir. In any case, there wouldn’t be an answer right away, and as time passed, he would know how valuable his idea was.

“Hey…this is difficult.”

“Indeed. I thought it would be something specific to assistive artificial intelligence.” Doctors usually thought along these lines: “I am here at the frontlines so I know what is needed.”

However, that wasn’t true. How could I feel the need for a service that had never been provided before without any deliberation?

“I used to think the same way but after listening to alarms from the intensive care unit…my thoughts have changed.”

“The intensive care unit?”

“Yes.”

“What kind of… idea?” Shin Hyun-tae asked the last question with a very serious expression on his face. It was natural because this research was mainly his own work.

Taejin Jo and Hong Changgi were likely second authors at best.

“Yes, Manager An.”

Suhyuk agreed with this sentiment and turned to Shin Hyun-tae as he answered, “The most important thing for internal medicine is predicting and preventing patient risk. The higher the severity of illness, the more important it becomes.”

“Right.”

“So…what if we had artificial intelligence that could help predict and prevent complications?”

“Predict and prevent…”

“Yes. I think starting with the intensive care unit would be good. Right now, each nurse is monitoring their own patients separately, but let’s gather all the data on one station. For example, Patient #1 shows signs of fatigue, Patient #2 shows signs of fatigue.”

“It shouldn’t be difficult.”

Currently, they were testing it on some heart patients. In the case of heart patients, anyone could treat them if they found anything abnormal, not just their assigned nurse or doctor.

That… How much was the budget? It doesn’t seem like much.

Moreover, Taehwa Hospital was one that had a certain amount of money. The sponsorship from the Taehwa Group wasn’t as plentiful as before, but since it was a hospital with a dark history, they had been given a large budget for the Internal Medicine Department.

“Then we will create an AI that can determine whether this patient is at risk using the collected data. This isn’t simply an alarm for current abnormalities…”

“Are you talking about something like predicting sepsis?”

Of course, this wasn’t news to him. Doctors were always pondering how they could provide the best treatment for their patients and continue doing so. As such, efforts to prevent major events related to sepsis had increased dramatically over time. There were several indicators used to calculate the probability of developing sepsis, although it didn’t always come out as a precise percentage. Still, it was helpful information during diagnosis.

“Yes. We use the MEDS score (Mortality in Emergency Department Sepsis).”

“Hm… That research paper… Was it published in 2003? It seems quite significant.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Mm. Mm…” Shin Hyun-tae scratched his chin a few times before nodding. “It seems worth trying. Let’s book a meeting with the Center for Integrative Medicine.”