KT Corporation, South Korea's largest telecommunications company, is diversifying its business from robotics to digital health as part of efforts to develop new growth engines in the next era of connectivity, media and other transformative industries.

In the latest move, KT has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Sibel Health., an award-winning U.S. company spun out of the Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics at Northwestern University, US specializes in ICU-grade biosensors, to boost its competence in artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data-based digital health.

Under the agreement, KT and Sibel will launch a pilot project that employs an ICT-based monitoring solution for digital health; conduct data analyses and modeling with the use of AI and Big Data; explore digital health business in developing countries; and collaborate with international funders on new projects and business models.

In 2020, KT has received a grant for a Next Generation Surveillance Study for Epidemic Preparedness from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and a grant from Korea-based RIGHT Fund to assist in measuring the risk of COVID-19 contraction. The fund finances health research and development projects worldwide.

Sibel, with advanced technology collecting biometric information in all patients, won the 2020 Spinoff Prize by Nature Research, the publisher of Nature journal. The award recognizes outstanding startup companies born at universities. In 2019 and 2020, Sibel's technology is featured in publications on real-time monitoring of body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen saturation in Science and Nature Medicine journals.

Image caption- Kim Hyoung-Wook, Executive Vice President of KT’s future value task force, and Sibel CEO Steve Xu are celebrating this new partnership for expanding digital health opportunities virtually given the COVID-19 pandemic, during an online ceremony at KT’s headquarters in Seoul