Samsung Medical Center offers a glimpse of the future of health care | HIMSS 2025
The hospital in South Korea is utilizing AI, robots and other digital tools to improve patient care and business operations. The medical center’s leaders took the stage at the HIMSS conference.
Las Vegas – It’s a little surprising to hear a robot extol the value of mindfulness.
Dr. Meong Hi Son, chief medical information officer of Samsung Medical Center, spoke at the 2025 HIMSS Conference. She appeared with one of the robots the medical center developed to engage pediatric patients.
The Samsung Medical Center in South Korea has developed robots to help pediatric patients, and they made an appearance during the first keynote session of the HIMSS 2025 Global Health Conference & Exhibition. Dr. Meong Hi Son, chief medical information officer of Samsung Medical Center, introduced two robots to an audience of thousands of healthcare leaders.
One robot told the crowd, “I see your bright smiles.” And it added, “If you’re said, I’m here to listen to you.”
The robot offered encouraging messages to its synthetic pal, who apparently wasn’t at his best. The robot led its partner in a mindfulness exercise, stretching its arms. While entertaining, the robots are designed to help engage kids in the hospital who have questions or are feeling anxious, and the robots are also designed to offer empathetic responses.
“As a pediatrician, I see how stressful and overwhelming the hospital environment can be for the children,” Son said.
“I brought them here with the hope that in the future, more robots will contribute to meaningful work in the hospital,” she said. After seeing the enthusiastic response from the audience, Son said with a smile, “Maybe they brought me here.”
Dr. Seung-woo Park, the president of the Samsung Medical Center in South Korea, spoke in the first keynote address of the conference before engaging in a fireside chat with Hal Wolf, president and CEO of HIMSS.
Samsung Medical Center, based in Seoul, South Korea, began its digital transformation years ago, integrating its electronic health record system with tools for analysis in research. The medical center is the first organization to receive a perfect HIMSS Digital Health Indicator score. The hospital went paperless in 2008.
Dr. Seung-woo Park, the president of the Samsung Medical Center in South Korea, spoke in the first keynote address of the 2025 HIMSS Conference in Las Vegas.
Park said much of the medical center’s digital transformation has been by necessity, with the need to reduce burdens on clinicians. “Resources are getting more limited and unpredictability is rising,” Park said.
“At times, it seems like we are navigating toward the perfect storm,” Park told the audience of healthcare leaders. “In this ever-changing world, let us take a moment to reflect on the principles that should not change, that we are the people dedicated to caring for other people and devoted to reshaping the healthcare environment by sharing experience. We have been changing the future of healthcare.”
Samsung Medical Center has been developing robotic assistants in other ways, including doing some tasks to help nurses on the floor, and automating more administrative tasks to allow doctors and nurses to focus more on patients.
The medical center is also integrating AI into its systems in a number of different ways.
Samsung has developed an AI system to “continuously learn from patient data,” Park said. The AI system can predict daily demands for tests and procedures, optimizing scheduling and reducing patient waiting times. It also helps patients schedule multiple tests on the same day, improving both efficiency and convenience for patients, Park said. He credited the medical center’s streamlining some tasks with reducing the nurse turnover rate from 9.3% to 5.9%
“We introduced AI solutions to reduce repetitive tests for nurses, such as assessing patient risks and documentation. We also redesigned process like scanning medication and other essential workflows,” Park said.
The hospital has also developed AI technology to improve MRI scanning, reducing the amount of time patients have to spend in the machine.
Samsung Medical Center is also turning its attention to the metaverse, Park said. “Although still in the early stages, we already see great possibility in education and training,” he said.
Technology is going to be critical to dealing with a physician shortage in South Korea that looks to get worse in the coming years.
The projected shortfall of physicians in South Korea is expected to reach 15,000 in 10 years, and many physicians have been pushed to exhaustion due to the existing shortage, Bloomberg Businessweek reported in February.
In an interview with Chief Healthcare Executive®, Wolf hailed the Samsung Medical Center’s use of AI and other technology. Wolf said that AI in health care would be one of the dominant themes of the conference.
Wolf was clearly delighted by the Samsung robots designed for pediatric patients. “This is an incredible link between the technology and the humanity,” Wolf said.
Toward the end of the keynote address, Son said she thinks AI “will redefine what’s possible.”
But beyond the medical center’s AI and tech advances, Son said she’s most proud of her nation offering universal access to health care, remarks which drew applause from the audience.
“No matter how much technology evolves, I sincerely hope we never lose this fundamental value,” Son said.
“Technology in healthcare shouldn't be just a shiny gem,” she added. “It must be a light that guides us through the darkest path.”
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