The eyes have it: How Mediwhale is revolutionizing preventive health care

Chyung Eun-ju

The eyes, often called the windows to the soul, have become a powerful tool for unlocking transformative health insights. This shift isn’t just groundbreaking — it challenges how we perceive health care and disease prevention. Leading this revolution is Mediwhale, an innovative company pioneering artificial intelligence (AI) powered retinal scans to predict cardiovascular and kidney health risks with remarkable precision.

This innovation represents the future of health care, prioritizing prevention over costly late-stage treatments. Yet, it challenges a deeply ingrained system resistant to change. The reliance on reactive care — treating illness only after it appears — highlights the urgent need for a shift toward proactive, preventive measures.

CEO Kevin Choi, who co-founded Mediwhale after losing 50 percent of his vision to glaucoma, said, "Our goal is to empower individuals and health care providers with tools that catch diseases early — long before symptoms arise. Prevention, not reaction, should be the cornerstone of modern medicine.”

Mediwhale’s vision began when Choi met Tyler Rim, now chief medical officer, at Severance Hospital in Seoul. Their shared goal of patient-focused AI diagnostics attracted Young Lee, now chief product officer. Lee won the "Medical Big Data Analysis Contest" at Seoul Asan Medical Center. Together, they created the Dr. Noon suite, AI-powered tools that analyze retinal images to predict health risks, from cardiovascular disease to biological aging.

Joel Cho

The flagship product, Dr. Noon CVD, assesses cardiovascular risk using retinal scans with accuracy comparable to coronary artery calcium scores from CT scans. Unlike CT scans, it’s noninvasive, radiation-free, cost-effective and provides real-time results — ideal for primary care settings.

This innovation is timely as health care systems worldwide struggle with the rising costs of chronic diseases. Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death globally, and kidney disease often goes undetected until it’s too late. Choi’s personal experience highlights this." He said, “Silent killers are devastating because symptoms are invisible until the damage is done.”

Mediwhale provides AI-powered tools that predict conditions for early intervention. With over 950 AI and machine learning-enabled medical devices approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration since 2016, the global shift supports this approach. The Apple Watch, the first device approved, highlights AI’s integration into health care. AI in retinal diagnostics enables rapid biomarker detection, disease monitoring and personalized treatment.

However, achieving these benefits requires global collaboration. AI algorithms must be trained on diverse datasets to ensure accuracy across races, ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds. Inclusivity is key to maximizing AI’s potential for all patients.

Critics might question whether this technology is ready for widespread adoption or whether it’s too expensive. However, Mediwhale has amassed a solid foundation of clinical evidence published in top medical journals like The Lancet Digital Health and npj Digital Medicine. Studies confirm the efficacy of its AI tools in predicting health risks, and Mediwhale has secured regulatory approvals across eight regions, including the EU, Britain and Australia. In Korea, the software is even eligible for private payor reimbursement, marking it as the first outpatient medical AI solution to achieve this milestone.

For instance, a recent study highlighted how Mediwhale’s retinal analysis could accurately assess the risk of stroke and heart disease years before symptoms manifest. Choi is unequivocal about the impact, “Our technology bridges the gap between early detection and effective prevention, offering a lifeline to millions who might otherwise remain unaware of their health risks." Considering that cardiovascular diseases remain a leading cause of death worldwide, such predictive capabilities are nothing short of revolutionary.

By emphasizing prevention, Mediwhale aligns with the global shift toward value-based care, focusing on early detection and actionable insights. Their tools — Dr. Noon CVD, Dr. Noon CKD and Dr. Noon Fundus — address distinct health concerns while integrating into clinical workflows.

As Mediwhale’s CEO stated, “[Dr. Noon CVD] is helping physicians make decisions about preventive interventions.” Dr. Noon CKD predicts chronic kidney disease risk without blood or urine tests by evaluating markers like eGFR and albuminuria, providing critical insights noninvasively. This is especially valuable for asymptomatic individuals who might go undiagnosed, reducing hospitalizations, complications and the economic burden of chronic diseases.

Looking ahead, Mediwhale’s technology could become as essential to health checkups as blood tests or blood pressure measurements, signaling an inevitable transformation in preventive care that health care systems must embrace now rather than later.

"We envision a world where our AI solutions are seamlessly integrated into everyday health care," Choi predicts, "providing individuals with actionable insights that empower them to take control of their health like never before." Imagine wearable devices that continuously monitor retinal changes, alerting users to potential health concerns in real time. These innovations, while perhaps less dramatic than robotic surgeries or high-tech scanners, could profoundly reshape health care delivery.

Yet this transformation will not occur in isolation. It requires a fundamental shift in health care paradigms, prioritizing preventive care as the cornerstone of medical systems worldwide. Governments and private institutions must recognize that early detection technologies, such as Mediwhale’s, are not merely complementary but critical in reducing long-term costs and improving population health outcomes.

As Mediwhale illustrated to us, the true measure of innovation lies in its ability to improve lives at a sustainable cost. "New" is only meaningful when it brings tangible benefits, whether by prolonging life, reducing suffering, or enabling earlier interventions.

This raises an important question. How do we ensure equitable access to these groundbreaking technologies? History has shown that advancements in health care often exacerbate disparities before narrowing them. Policymakers must actively integrate affordability into the innovation process, ensuring that tools like Mediwhale’s AI systems reach communities most in need — not just those with the means to pay for a hefty premium. After all, the promise of preventive care can only be completely fulfilled if it’s universally accessible.

Mediwhale’s contributions remind us that the future of health care isn’t just about curing disease. It's about empowering individuals to seize control of their health and redefine longevity. This shift demands bold investments in preventive care, challenging us to prioritize technologies that preempt suffering over those that merely react to it. By redirecting focus and funding toward preventive technologies, we aren’t stifling innovation — we’re fostering it in the areas where it matters most.

Chyung Eun-ju (ejchyung@snu.ac.kr) is a tech research associate at Donghyun ASP. She earned both her bachelor's in business and master's in marketing from Seoul National University. Joel Cho (joelywcho@gmail.com) is a practicing lawyer specializing in IP and digital law.