Heidi signs Samsung Medical Centre deal for Korea launch

Heidi has signed a memorandum of understanding with Samsung Medical Centre, making the hospital its first partner in South Korea.

The Melbourne-founded healthcare AI company will work with Samsung Medical Centre to develop a Korean-ready version of the Heidi platform. The hospital will be the first site where the system is tested against Korean clinical, technical and regulatory requirements.

As part of the arrangement, Samsung Medical Centre will test Heidi's clinical documentation tools within its electronic medical record system. This will include a proof of concept using Heidi's on-premise system inside the hospital's own infrastructure.

The deployment is expected to integrate with DARWIN, the hospital's electronic medical record platform, and be built on HL7 FHIR, a standard for exchanging health information. The two organisations will assess the system on technical performance, physician acceptance and documentation quality.

Local adaptation

The partnership also includes work on a Korean Clinical Documentation Standard, a Korean FHIR Implementation Guide and a Heidi Korea Reference Architecture. If the proof of concept succeeds, Samsung Medical Centre is expected to act as a reference site for future Heidi deployments across other healthcare organisations in South Korea.

Founded in Melbourne in 2019, Heidi says its software is used in more than 3 million patient consultations a week across 190 countries and 110 languages. The company focuses on AI tools for clinical documentation and workflow support, including ambient transcription, documentation templates and medical research access for clinicians.

The South Korean partnership is a further step in Heidi's international expansion following recent fundraising. Heidi has raised a USD $100 million Series C led by Blackbird and a USD $240 million growth investment from General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund.

Samsung Medical Centre is one of South Korea's best-known hospitals and has invested heavily in digital systems. It was recently ranked fourth globally and first in South Korea in Newsweek's World's Best Smart Hospitals 2027 rankings.

The hospital has also achieved Stage 7, the highest level of certification from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, across four maturity models covering infrastructure, electronic medical records, digital imaging and analytics. It said it was the first healthcare institution to reach Stage 7 in the Infrastructure Adoption Model in 2022 and the Digital Imaging Adoption Model in 2023.

Thomas Kelly outlined the significance of the deal for Heidi's entry into the South Korean market.

"Samsung Medical Centre represents Heidi's first collaboration in South Korea and will serve as a key partner as we expand into the Korean healthcare market," said Thomas Kelly, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Heidi. "Korean clinicians are among the most skilled in the world, and they manage patient volumes few of their peers elsewhere would recognise. Every minute spent on documentation comes out of time with patients. Working with SMC lets us build Heidi around the way medicine is practised in Korea, from its documentation standards to the hospital systems clinicians use every day, so the time we give back goes to patient care."

Samsung Medical Centre said the agreement aligns with its broader digital healthcare work.

"We expect this collaboration with Heidi to further accelerate our efforts to create a more patient-centered AI-powered healthcare environment," said Professor Seung Woo Park, President and Chief Executive Officer of Samsung Medical Centre. "This partnership will mark another important milestone for SMC as we continue to shape the future of smart hospitals by bringing the next generation of healthcare to life."