Hyejun Lee, CEO of Kai Health, has had a career journey defined by change. Although she had built a stable path as an obstetrician-gynecologist, she unexpectedly took off her white coat and left to study in the United States. After completing an MBA at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, she gained business experience at U.S. healthcare companies Change Healthcare and Syapse, a precision oncology big data platform. Then, driven by the thought “I want to build my own business,” she opened a third chapter of her career. In 2021, she founded Kai Health to address infertility challenges using big data.

From the outside, her path may look like a series of bold challenges and constant change. But she says she “simply moved in the direction her values led.” In other words, she became who she is today by thinking deeply about work that could have a positive impact on many people.

That said, stepping into challenge was not easy. Someone once compared entrepreneurship to a game: raising investment, developing services, and obtaining technical certifications—each time you clear a mission, a new mission appears. Even the “sweetness” of big or small achievements often fades quickly. Still, Lee says she does not burn out because she follows an unwavering inner motivation rather than chasing outcomes themselves. “Results matter, but I don’t find my energy in the results,” she said, emphasizing that “if you cling only to outcomes, you either can’t keep going for long, or you can become complacent.”

Now in its third year, Kai Health is approaching commercialization of its embryo analysis AI solution, Vita Embryo. The solution helps identify higher-likelihood embryos. While embryologists and clinicians typically achieve about 40–50% accuracy when selecting high-quality embryos, Lee said using Vita Embryo can raise that to around 60–70%. She said the company plans to receive regulatory approval from Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and begin selling to hospitals from early next year.

Q: Why did you leave a stable career as a physician and take on a new field?

A: While treating infertility patients in obstetrics and gynecology, I became deeply interested in healthcare data. Rather than treating patients one by one, I wanted to create larger change through technology. I left the hospital and went to the U.S., where I worked at Change Healthcare and Syapse. At Syapse Korea, I was responsible for sales and marketing and customer management. Because I had to move according to headquarters decisions, my desire grew to “take ownership and build my own business.” That’s how I started a company. It also influenced me that my father, father-in-law, husband, and younger sibling are all businesspeople. My family—especially my husband—supported me a lot.

Q: What was the biggest challenge moving from medicine into the tech industry?

A: I lacked expertise itself. Compared to medicine, which you can see and touch, the tech field is more abstract. That transition wasn’t easy, and it’s still difficult. I can communicate about IT and think logically to a certain extent, but I’m not a technical expert, so I work closely with many developers on the team.

Q: Why did you choose an embryo analysis AI solution as your startup idea?

A: I worked as an infertility specialist OB-GYN and I handled data in healthcare companies, so it was the field I knew best. More importantly, I believed solving infertility is something society truly needs. Infertility is painful in itself, and the wounds from repeated failure are deep. Yet so much is left to chance. I believed applying AI and data could increase predictability. Vita Embryo learns from embryo data collected at hospitals to understand what kinds of embryos increase the likelihood of pregnancy, and it helps clinicians or embryologists select better embryos. It can reduce three rounds of artificial insemination to one.

Q: Why did you choose a B2B service model?

A: As a physician, I provided B2C services, so I naturally considered B2C as well. But I still haven’t found the right answer for the business model. In healthcare, it’s difficult to apply typical models like subscriptions, attaching e-commerce to sell medications, or relying on ads. I do think a B2B2C direction—like in other countries—may be the best approach, such as providing services through corporate benefits programs or insurance company offerings.

Q: Were there major difficulties after founding the company? Collecting medical data must have been challenging.

A: After the “three data laws” were revised, there was a path to use retrospective patient data. Through a National Information Society Agency (NIA) project to build an AI fetal/embryo dataset, we had the opportunity to accumulate data. Still, turning data from a research project into a usable product is a completely different story. It took significant effort to increase efficiency without disrupting clinicians’ existing workflows. Fortunately, the rise of ChatGPT and the progress of medical AI companies like Lunit and VUNO changed perceptions within healthcare a lot. By running proofs of concept (PoCs) with clinicians, we were able to improve the solution.

Q: When did you feel you were glad you started a company?

A: I feel that way simply because I can work proactively. Being able to develop products in the direction I want and bring people in—those are the most important things for me.

Q: But working proactively also means more responsibility and pressure.

A: It’s a double-edged sword. Starting a company is fun, but it’s also extremely hard. Someone compared it to a game. It’s fun when you clear a mission, but it doesn’t end there. There are always trials—new competitors appear, or the market becomes tougher. That’s why it’s hard to fully enjoy any moment of success. There’s always the next step waiting. Rather than clinging to each outcome, I keep moving forward by using inner motivation as my engine.

Q: You are a mother of two middle-school daughters. How did you manage work–family balance as a working mom?

A: I grew up with a working mother, and my children also see having a working mom as normal. They feel proud of a mother who is always busy but does her best. Of course, there were difficult times. When my child cried and clung to me as I left for work, it broke my heart, and I sometimes wanted to quit everything. When my kids were younger, rather than “sacrificing” my career, I adjusted the pace. At the time I worked at Maria Fertility Hospital, where commuting hours were fixed and it was possible to leave work relatively early. As children grow, they become more independent, so now I don’t need to devote as much physical time as before.

Q: What would you like to tell women colleagues (and younger women) in the workplace?

A: I hope they let go of the idea that they must be a “superwoman,” and see things with a longer breath. A husband is not someone who “helps” with childcare—he is someone who does it together with you. In my case, my husband was the main point of contact for the children’s school and academies, and he was also in the parents’ group chats. When I went to study in the U.S., he even quit his job. Don’t get trapped by the label “working mom” and feel you must lead everything and do everything perfectly. You have to boldly let go of that belief.

Q: What are your future goals?

A: The ways people have children and build families are changing a lot. Demand for IVF and artificial insemination is growing, and I want to help. Beyond selecting good embryos, I want to develop technologies that support the entire process of creating and growing good embryos. There are many variables in the environment—culture media, incubators, and other conditions—so AI could be used to predict and optimize the best environment. For egg freezing, solutions could also emerge that predict how many children may be possible depending on the number of eggs frozen. The human body is extremely complex, so we can’t solve everything with technology, but I believe data can help humans make important decisions. Ultimately, my goal is to contribute to building healthy families.

Profile

Hyejun Lee graduated from Seoul National University College of Medicine. She trained at Seoul National University Hospital as an infertility and reproductive endocrinology specialist and served as a clinical fellow, then worked as a department head and head of the international clinic at Maria Fertility Hospital. She later earned an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. She moved into industry, working on the Strategy and AI team at Change Healthcare (a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group), and served as APAC Director at Syapse. In 2021, she founded Kai Health and developed the Vita Embryo solution.

Source: Asia Economy (Asiae) · Reporter: Yuri Choi · Published Oct 24, 2024 · Originally published in Korean · English translation

[Power K-Woman] “I don’t run on achievements alone…My inner motivation is the real engine”