Korea Pilots AI-Powered Ambulance Platform Using 10 Models to Support Emergency Care

The system, dubbed the "Intelligence Emergency Activity Support Platform," represents the first phase of a joint R&D project with South Korea's National Fire Agency.

Severance Hospital researchers at Yonsei University have unveiled a prototype ambulance platform powered by 10 artificial intelligence models, designed to assist paramedics with documentation and hospital transfers. 

The system, dubbed the "Intelligence Emergency Activity Support Platform," represents the first phase of a joint R&D project with South Korea's National Fire Agency.

The AI platform offers four primary functions: converting emergency dialogue into structured clinical records via voice input; predicting patient deterioration and assessing on-scene risks; pre-triage severity scoring using ambulance CCTV prior to emergency room intake; and supporting decision-making for treatment guidance and transfer hospital selection.

During recent field tests, paramedics rated the system 86 out of 100 for overall satisfaction, highlighting the hospital transfer recommendation feature as particularly useful for real-world decision-making.

The project is entering its second phase, which will focus on quantitatively verifying response speed, workload reduction, communication accuracy, and system stability in operational settings.

Emergency responders often face challenges in completing assessments while managing vital signs, locating capable hospitals, and transmitting critical patient information simultaneously. The AI-powered platform aims to streamline these tasks, enabling faster communication with emergency department clinicians and reducing the reporting burden on paramedics.

“The ultimate goal is to increase the efficiency of emergency rescue activities in ambulances and to quickly transmit records of patient conditions to the appropriate emergency room doctors, thereby improving patient survival rates,” said Professor Jang Hyuk-jae, who leads the research team.

The project also involves the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) and the Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI).

South Korea has recently shifted its focus from a "serious" national medical crisis alert, lifted in October 2025, to long-term emergency care reforms, including caps on virtual consultations, standardized emergency medical fees, and structural hospital changes. The government has also introduced several AI initiatives for emergency care, such as systems for patient classification and transfer, and the Emergency Smart app for directing patients to appropriate facilities.

The Severance Hospital AI platform is part of this broader push to modernize South Korea’s emergency response infrastructure and integrate AI into frontline medical services.

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