Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, Dankook University centres team up on health tech prototypes

They will reduce prototyping time and costs.

Catholic University of Korea Seoul St. Mary's Hospital’s Mustard Seed Nurturing Centre signed an agreement with Dankook University Wearable Manufacturing Data (WMD) Centre to fast-track healthcare prototypes.

The partnership targets the Centre's Commercialisation Track, now in its first pilot cohort of 11 teams, which are developing prototypes for the "2026 International Hospital & Health Tech Expo”.

Teams previously had to source independently and vet external companies, a process the Centre said carried time and cost burdens given limited in-house experience.

The Dankook WMD Centre operates with government subsidies from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and provides 3D design, prototype manufacturing, 3D printing output, reverse-engineering data, and human-dimensional and activity data.

Under the agreement, Commercialisation Track teams gain access to this infrastructure to reduce prototyping time and cost ahead of the KHF exhibition.

The Mustard Seed Nurturing Centre plans to extend the arrangement beyond the Commercialisation Track to its Contest Track, including special lectures from Dankook WMD Centre practitioners and early-stage matching support for prototype design.