My
Own Medical Service
Zero
to Infinity
Zero
health care to Smart Healthcare in two generations. At the end of the Korean war in 1953, Korea
was impoverished country with virtually no access to healthcare. Today, modern hospitals and healthcare
facilities have been established in every corner of the country and all
citizens are protected by a national insurance scheme. Patients come from overseas for high quality,
affordable treatment. The healthcare industry in 2017 was US$ 6.4
billion with a growth rate at a constant 16%.
The
medical industry is growing driven by three primary factors; an aging
population, universally available healthcare through the National Health
Insurance Service and concern for future
pandemics.
Growth
Factors
One
of Korea’s concerns for the future is the aging population. Korea Statistic
announced with the current growth rate, by 2045, Korea will have the highest
population over 65. As the population ages, the need for advanced and
sufficient medical supply will be a crucial issue.
The
National Health Insurance Service provides affordable medical service for all.
As the health service is cheap, it provides the public with access to more
medical services leading to more use of medical supplies and services. There is
a joke that some seniors visit the hospital for check-ups every few days just
to talk with someone.
We
have witnessed COVID 19 and how it has affected our daily lives. As the world
becomes more crowded, advanced, and developed, we cannot underestimate the possibility
of another crisis. The need for medical supplies and a system to prevent other
infections requires the medical industry to develop. With the development of
big data and the many software programs to process it, the medical information
field has grown, providing the possibility to customize medical services.
Customized
Medical Service
The
Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHW) announced plans to develop personalized
medicine technology in 2016 with information data as a steppingstone. Personalized medicine is defined differently
by different countries. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety defined personalized
medicine as drug or drug usage considering a person's genotype. However, following
changes in the industry, the definition has expanded. A collection of
information such as DNA, diagnosis, clinical information, and personal habits
are evaluated to customized medical service while increasing the precision of diagnosis
and treatment.
To
develop Personal Health Records (PHR) which will be the basis of personalized
medicine, the government is starting the National Bio Bigdata Demonstration Project,'
which will collect DNA and clinical data from over 20,000 individuals to be
used for personalized medicine, new medicine and other researches.
Decision
Maker for My Health Service
Health
care AI is becoming mainstream as it will provide many health decisions when
medical bigdata is applied. However, there are several concerns about using
this technology.
The
first concern is limited data. Most health care data can be collected from
health insurance, check-ups status, and individual hospital databases. This
information is related to public organizations that have severe restrictions
making it hard to collect or distribute data. Moreover, it is difficult to
access or use these data due to the Personal Information Protection Act. The
second is the possibility of exposing personal information. Individually the
data may not be identifiable, but collecting massive data and combining the
personal data might reveal individual information.
Even
with the rapidly changing industry, developments in the domestic AI sector is still
under performing. The slow AI development is due to the limited number of
advanced AI developers, which leads to slow growth in AI programming as well as
the platforms needed to access and distribute it. Moreover, there are also
moral issues regarding the responsibility of AI decisions. When there is a medical error, who will be
responsible?
To
Infinity and Beyond
Korea
already has a standardized medical healthcare system and a stable medical
industry. Medical health bigdata will be refined by the AI system exclusive for
health care. There are a few obstacles, such as AI development and medical data
regulatory issues, but with continuous development, Korea will soon have a
health care system that is customized to each patient and provides personalized
medicine.
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