StellarCube signs the main PainX development contract with Korea University College of Medicine (Anam Hospital)

StellarCube, an AI health tech company, has signed the main contract with the research team of Professor Hee Jung Kim at Korea University College of Medicine (Anam Hospital) for the development and demonstration study of an AI-based pain management algorithm.

The contract is intended to advance the clinical research and commercialization of PainX, the AI pain management solution StellarCube is developing. The two organizations will cooperate on the joint development and validation of AI-based pain prediction technology using continuous biosignals and electronic medical records.

A specialist in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, Professor Kim serves as principal investigator for multi-center registries in Korea and abroad and oversees the creation and advancement of national-scale medical data ecosystems. Through AI time-series analysis and multimodal research with the National Health Insurance Service, he has continuously explored the practical clinical application of medical information technology, and on that basis leads the design and clinical validation of next-generation AI decision support models using high-resolution biosignal waveform data.

PainX analyzes a range of biosignals in real time, including electrocardiogram (ECG) and photoplethysmogram (PPG), to address the limitation that pain management has depended on patients' subjective descriptions or clinicians' experience. The goal is an AI-based pain management solution that predicts pain quantitatively and supports diagnostic and dosing decisions.

Professor Kim's team will be responsible for conducting clinical research and collecting medical data; jointly developing the pain prediction algorithm and providing clinical validation and medical advice; and publishing academic papers and sharing research results.

The clinical research will use a platform capable of collecting and analyzing biosignals from intensive care and post-operative patients in real time. Continuous physiological waveform data and medical data from post-operative patients will be collected and analyzed together, and the PainX project will use that data to predict the occurrence and worsening of post-operative pain. The aim is to validate the clinical validity and applicability of the AI pain prediction algorithm using high-resolution medical data accumulated in real clinical environments.

Professor Kim said: "Pain is a very important indicator in clinical practice, yet it has been an area where systematic management was difficult because assessment relied on subjective judgement. Through this collaboration we expect to validate the potential of pain prediction technology grounded in real clinical data, and to propose a new paradigm for pain management that can support clinical decision-making."

StellarCube leads research funding; joint development and implementation of the AI algorithm and software; commercialization strategy and execution; medical device regulatory preparation and productisation; and intellectual property management and commercialization.

Jinseob Noh, CEO of StellarCube, said: "This contract establishes a framework for validating and refining StellarCube's AI pain prediction technology in a real clinical environment. We expect to raise PainX's technical maturity on the basis of clinically validated medical data, and to accelerate the commercialization and market entry of AI-based pain management solutions."