Green Light for Global Commercialization of X-ray Urinary Stone AI

Aidot Co., Ltd., a specialized medical artificial intelligence (AI) company, has been finally selected for the "Gangwon Province Regional Innovation Cluster Fostering (R&D) Base Institution Open Innovation Project," a large-scale national project supported by the government. This selection gives wings to the seamless global commercialization of its global X-ray-based urinary stone AI solution.

With the selection for this national project, Aidot plans to accelerate the completion of its next-generation AI engine by actively utilizing Gangwon Province's excellent digital healthcare infrastructure and its network of base hospitals for demonstration.

The initial diagnosis of urinary stones is crucial because it is accompanied by excruciating pain and a high recurrence rate. However, current practices heavily rely on expensive CT (computed tomography) equipment for accurate interpretation.

Consequently, more than half of domestic public medical institutions (50.8%) and primary general clinics have had to rely on Kidney, Ureter, and Bladder (KUB) plain abdominal radiography—which has a low visual interpretation rate due to a lack of equipment—bearing the risk of misdiagnosis and the burden of transferring patients to tertiary hospitals.

This is precisely why the government decisively selected Aidot's project.

Through this project, Aidot is set to become the first company in the world to possess both CT- and X-ray-based urinary stone artificial intelligence solutions.

The company has already completed patent applications, making thorough preparations to defend its intellectual property rights.

Aidot's "X-ray URO dot AI" adopts a method that integrates the AI engine into existing entry-level X-ray equipment owned by hospitals, aiming to achieve an accuracy level comparable to 3D CT without requiring any additional hardware replacements.

Patients can receive swift and accurate diagnoses while reducing radiation exposure to about 1/200th compared to a CT scan. As a result, it is being hailed as a mega-innovation that will shift the paradigm of the medical field.

Furthermore, through joint research with the research team of Professor Young Eun Yoon from the Department of Urology at Hanyang University Hospital (one of Korea’s top-tier institutions) and the research team of Professor Tae-Wook Kang from the Department of Urology at Yonsei University Wonju Severance Christian Hospital, Aidot has already secured more than 1,300 high-precision matching data sets centered on tertiary general hospitals. By utilizing a multimodal learning method that grafts 3D CT ground truth data onto 2D X-ray images on a pixel-by-pixel basis, the company plans to successfully implement the "world's first ultra-precision X-ray urinary stone artificial intelligence system."

Additionally, Aidot is accelerating its push into the global market by engaging in strategic collaboration with a global leading Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL) equipment manufacturer.

By combining lithotripsy equipment—the gold standard for urinary stone treatment—with Aidot's unrivaled AI diagnostic solution, the company has secured a powerful weapon to quickly preempt the global urology market.

On a global scale, the company plans to roll out its global scale-up by upgrading outdated X-ray devices into smart diagnostic tools in emerging economies like Vietnam and Indonesia, where the introduction of multi-million dollar CT scanners is unfeasible and reading personnel are drastically scarce.

This national R&D project is being directed by Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Han-sol Choi, a veteran expert in the biomedical field.

CTO Choi holds a Ph.D. from KAIST and is a core talent who has served as a faculty member at the University of Freiburg in Germany, a research assistant professor at UNIST, and the CTO of leading medical AI companies in Korea.

Based on his know-how in commercializing artificial intelligence technology, he stated that he plans to complete the commercialization roadmap for this urinary stone SaMD (Software as a Medical Device) within 21 months.

His ambition is to obtain the final Class II medical device approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) after undergoing performance verification by an external certified testing institute (KTL) and confirmatory clinical trials. In conjunction with the timing of commercialization, he intends to pursue an Initial Public Offering (IPO) backed by overwhelming revenue growth.

"The selection for this Gangwon Province Regional Innovation Cluster Fostering Project means that Aidot's medical AI technology has been nationally recognized," said CTO Choi. He expressed strong confidence, adding, "Together with the professor teams in Korea's top urinary stone fields, we will complete ultra-precision AI alongside world-renowned scholars, conduct expansion research into ultrasound, and leap forward as an overwhelming leader in the global medical AI market through partnerships with global lithotripsy leaders."

Korea Economic TV / 2026-05-29 / Deputy Managing Editor Jae-jun Yang