AI tool warns of heart attack risk in emergency rooms

AI tool warns of heart attack risk in emergency rooms

최초입력 2025.05.07 10:24:03

Professor Kim Joong-hee

A new artificial intelligence (AI) tool developed in South Korea is helping emergency room physicians detect heart attack risks by analyzing electrocardiograms (ECGs) in real time. The solution, called “ECG Buddy,” was created by Professor Kim Joong-hee of Seoul National University Bundang Hospital to support critical decision-making in high-pressure environments.
Over 17 million ECGs are conducted annually in Korea but analyzing them can be difficult even for experienced doctors. The challenge is greater in emergency rooms, where time is limited and physicians often must treat multiple patients at once.
The ECG Buddy app allows users to photograph ECG readings with a smartphone, then automatically assesses the risk of more than 10 major cardiovascular conditions using AI. It received regulatory approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2024 and is currently being used in over 20 hospitals.
One emergency medicine professor recalled a case where a patient arrived at the ER with chest pain. “The ECG seemed normal but ECG Buddy flagged a heart attack risk,” the doctor said. “Ten minutes later, the patient suffered cardiac arrest. We could have missed it without the app.”
Professor Kim, who has worked in emergency medicine for 13 years, said the emotional burden of making life-and-death decisions is constant. “Every night, I used to wonder if the patients I discharged might have died at home,” he said.
Although some ECG machines come with diagnostic features, they are costly and embedded in specialized devices. ECG Buddy, on the other hand, only requires a smartphone, which makes it accessible and easy to use.
Kim emphasized that accessibility is crucial in medical AI. “No matter how advanced it is, AI is useless if it is not there when needed,” he said. To build ECG Buddy, he personally labeled 50,000 ECG datasets over three years and launched the startup ARPI in July 2021. The company now has more than 20 employees.
The tool’s importance has grown recently as hospitals face a shortage of medical residents, forcing emergency physicians to take on additional roles as primary care providers. Kim said he hopes ECG Buddy will reduce some of the pressure on doctors at the front lines.
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AI tool warns of heart attack risk in emergency rooms

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