The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) is ushering in an unprecedented transformation in healthcare. More than a mere technological advancement, this development represents a fundamental shift in the medical paradigm. In the field of precision medicine especially, the collaboration between AI and human clinicians is advancing the realization of truly personalized and predictive care. The 2025 Spring Conference of the Korean Society of Medical Informatics (KOSMI), held in Busan under the theme “AI and Human Collaboration in the Age of Generative AI,” brought together healthcare professionals, researchers, industry leaders, and policymakers for in-depth discussions on the evolution of medical informatics in this new era.
Organizing Committee Chairman Sang-Min Sung, Director of the Convergence Medical Technology Institute at Pusan National University Hospital, officially opened the conference with a message of anticipation and purpose. He expressed hope that the comprehensive discussions throughout the event would help foster meaningful collaborations between humans and AI in future medical practice. In his welcome speech, KOSMI President Byung-Chul Jang observed that as AI continues to advance, it is not only reshaping our understanding of health and disease, but also laying the groundwork for a new healthcare model that predicts outcomes and prevents disease through human-AI synergy.
During the congratulatory remarks, Representative Kyung-Tae Cho of the People Power Party and Director Hae-Young Jung of the National Center for Biological Research Resources emphasized the essential role of national infrastructure and policy in cultivating an innovative health information ecosystem. Following these remarks, Executive Director Jong-Yeop Kim introduced a special segment titled “The History of the Society Through People,” offering a moment of reflection on KOSMI’s milestones and legacy as the Society approaches its 40th anniversary.
The Beom-San Special Lecture was delivered by Minseop Yeom, Director of the Korea Health Information Service (KHIS), who presented an overview of healthcare informatization and the future direction of digital healthcare in Korea. He underscored KHIS’s commitment to building a secure and future-oriented standardization infrastructure, with a focus on safeguarding personal data and enhancing both the reliability and utility of health data.
The keynote speech, delivered by Dr. Adrian Zai, Professor at UMass Chan Medical School, was a highlight of the final day. His lecture, “Steering the Future of Medicine: Human-Centered AI in the Generative Age,” encouraged attendees to reconsider their approach to AI in medicine. According to Dr. Zai, the critical question is no longer what medical AI can achieve, but how its impacts can be responsibly directed. He stressed the importance of ethical design, human-centered integration, and international collaboration in shaping the evolving role of AI in medicine.
1. Scientific Program Highlights
The conference featured eight tutorials, 15 symposia, 10 oral sessions with 49 presentations, and four industry-supported symposia (Table 1). Key themes included patient data empowerment, quantum computing, and the automation of clinical documentation. Sessions focused on generative AI in electronic medical records and named entity recognition (NER) were particularly popular, underscoring the practical integration of large language models into clinical workflows. Additional topics included nursing informatics, SNOMEDCT and HL7 FHIR interoperability standards, and AI-driven precision medicine. Oral sessions highlighted a wide array of research, from federated learning and suicide risk prediction to wearable analytics, with significant participation from emerging investigators.
Table 1.
Participation overview of the 2025 KOSMI Spring Conference
| Category | n |
|---|---|
| Participants | 1,335 |
| Tutorials | 8 |
| Symposia | 15 |
| Poster presentations | 111 |
| Oral presentations | 49 |
KOSMI: Korean Society of Medical Informatics.
2. Academic-Industry Collaboration
Industry symposia showcased technologies from Microsoft, EZCaretech, Pure Storage, and Douzone Bizon, with a focus on AI applications in hospital systems and clinical documentation. Demo Day featured startups working on digital therapeutics, wearable health technologies, and AI-based clinical trials.
3. Poster and e-Poster Presentations
The conference attracted numerous poster submissions, reflecting broad interest in informatics topics. Notably, there were outstanding contributions from undergraduate researchers. Poster presentations covered diverse subjects, including mental health informatics, telemedicine, natural language processing-based data structuring, and wearable data analysis.
4. Special Programs
A major highlight was the tour of Pusan National University Hospital, which included visits to the Regional Trauma Center and the Convergence Medical Research Center. These tours showcased Korea’s progress in trauma care and its data-driven research infrastructure.
5. Conclusion: Looking Ahead
The 2025 KOSMI Spring Conference marked a pivotal moment as the Society prepares for its 40th anniversary. It reaffirmed KOSMI’s leadership in digital health through academic excellence and innovation. According to survey responses from 172 participants, the most popular symposium topics were “LLM and EMR Integration” (51.7%) and “Generative AI for NER” (43.6%). Furthermore, 99.4% agreed that the conference successfully reflected the latest trends in medical informatics, highlighting KOSMI’s central role in leading the digital transformation of healthcare in Korea and beyond.
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Footnotes
Conflict of Interest
No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.
Acknowledgments
This conference summary is based on the Daily KOSMI coverage from the valuable contributions of KOSMI’s Academic Committee members and the dedicated efforts of the 3rd KOSMI Student Reporters. We extend our sincere appreciation to the following student reporters, whose on-site coverage and insights greatly enriched this editorial: So Yi Jeong, Department of Convergence Security, Kangwon National University; Hyeonseo Lee, Department of Computer Engineering, College of IT Convergence, Gachon University; Byeonggu Kim, Department of Nursing, Gangneung-Wonju National University; Dam Yoon, Division of Health Information Management, College of Software and Digital Healthcare Convergence, Yonsei University; Euijun Yang, Department of Health Administration, Kongju National University; Rang Sa, Department of Health Care Administration, Yeonsung University; Seongmin Kim, School of Medicine, Keimyung University; Yeji Yong, Department of Nursing, Gangneung-Wonju National University; Yeonju Kim, Department of Health Administration, Kongju National University; and ChatGPT.