"Using mobile and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) to link local clinics with large hospital examination centers can dramatically improve the quality of primary care.", said Kang Jae-heon, head of the Future Health Care Promotion Division at Gangbuk Samsung Hospital (Professor of Family Medicine).
The Future Health Care Promotion Team of Gangbuk Samsung Hospital, led by Kang, is an organization directly under the hospital director and is actively investing and researching to lead future medical trends and ICT convergence medical services. Projects and research conducted by the promotion team can be largely divided into mobile health care, non-face-to-face medical counseling, future medical new projects, and international development cooperation projects.
Kang, who was appointed as the next chairman of the Korean Family Association, has served as a professor at a university hospital all his life, but reiterated that the most desirable direction for medical policy for the lives and health of the people is to stand upright. It also said that the healthcare business using mobile or ICT, which the promotion team is currently pursuing, can also be a means to dramatically improve the role and quality of primary medical care.
Some in the medical community still misunderstand that large hospitals are trying to use mobile or ICT to take away patients from local clinics, but that's not the case at all. Healthcare using mobile or ICT helps local clinics take care of patients more efficiently.
In fact, the Future Healthcare Promotion Team is currently using mobile or ICT technology in primary care, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare's three tasks are being carried out. The ICT-based Primary Health Chronic Disease Management Project, which began in 2020, will develop a service model to effectively manage patients with chronic diseases concentrated in higher hospitals.
The project details are the establishment of service models that can be used by primary medical institutions, the development of guidelines for collecting and analyzing data use, the development of care coordinator education programs, economic evaluation, and financial impact analysis through pilot projects.
It won a new R&D project in 2022. Through the Digital Health-based Chronic Disease Management Project (O2O) for Pyeongchang-gun, the existing ICT-based chronic disease patient management model is applied to the O2O model designed as a farming and fishing village to manage chronic diseases using ICT technology of the primary medical institution-led model. Gangbuk Samsung Hospital played a role in supporting the overall design, settlement, and expansion of the O2O model in this project.
"This project will effectively contribute to improving the national health by strengthening the chronic disease management ability of primary medical institutions and improving the lifestyle of patients with chronic diseases," Kang said. "We will further contribute to resolving health inequality in rural areas."
In addition, the promotion team conducted a mobile health care program with in-house clinics for executives and employees with similar findings such as high blood pressure, diabetes, dyslipidemia and obesity in Samsung Group to confirm that their health indicators have actually improved.
As demands from Samsung Group affiliates as well as requests for health care of executives and employees from other large companies increase, the promotion team plans to diversify programs and upgrade applications to meet the needs of various users and cope with expanded demands.
In fact, the number of executives and employees receiving mobile health care has more than doubled from 300 at four large companies and public institutions in 2021 to 1,858 at eight this year, and the market related to the employee assistance program/worker support program is expected to continue to expand in the future.
In addition, the promotion team is conducting △ Metabus AI-based smart health management model construction and demonstration projects △ non-face-to-face medical counseling at overseas diplomatic missions △ Ministry of Foreign Affairs' ICT-based medical system (Vietnam) △ Invitation training for health and medical personnel in developing countries.
Director Kang Jae-heon said, "Korea is the only country that can compete with the U.S. in the field of healthcare using mobile and ICT, and Korea is more competitive in terms of medical access, so we should focus on fostering this field in the future."
"The U.S. and Korea are the only countries with infrastructure such as big 3 smartphone companies, Telecom, and ICT companies, and Korea has easier access to medical institutions than the U.S., which has a very large territory," Kang said.
Writer: Anne Ma
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