'Cosmetic surgery tourism has limits'

Bang Yung-jue is a pioneer of clinical trials in Korea and world-famous researcher in gastric cancer treatment. Over the past 30 years, he has published more than 380 papers in international medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet. /Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

By Jung Min-ho, Kim Eil-chul

The global success of Korean pop music and TV shows has helped to make cosmetic surgery one of the largest attractions for the country's medical sector. Today Korea is dubbed the "plastic surgery capital of the world," attracting tens of thousands of people annually seeking to look like their favorite stars.

Over the past several years, Korean medical industry's reliance on Chinese tourists seeking such medical services has increased sharply. For a country, whose ambitions in medical tourism are well beyond cosmetic surgery, this is a worrying trend, one scholar said.

"The trend will not last long," Bang Yung-jue, 62, president of the Biomedical Research Institute at Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH), said in an interview. "Medical tourism driven by plastic surgery has its limits.

"Chinese surgeons are learning how to perform cosmetic procedures fast. I think, within five or 10 years, few will come here to get the surgery. In fact, Chinese Botox products are already replacing Korean ones here."

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the number of foreigners visiting Korea for cosmetic surgery increased to 36,224 in 2014 from 2,851 in 2009. Meanwhile, revenue soared to 125.3 billion won ($107 million) from 5.7 billion won.

The cosmetic surgery industry, which has grown faster than any other medical fields since 2009, now accounts for 23 percent of the total revenue from foreign medical tourists.

"The essence of medical tourism is to treat patients with serious diseases, which cannot be treated elsewhere," Bang said. "That is the only thing that will keep drawing medical tourists from around the world."

The future of the healthcare market is predicted to be increasingly global, and the Korean government hopes that the country will be among the biggest beneficiaries in the new era.

In fact, Korea has great potential. The country is known for its world-class medical excellence in many fields, including treatment of cancers, cardiac and vascular diseases and organ transplantation.

Yet the country is still far from its hope of becoming the medical hub of Asia. Not even close.

According to the report "Medical Value Travel in India" by KPMG and Ficci, India's revenue from foreign patients was $78.6 billion in 2012 and it will continue to grow to $158.2 billion in 2017.

Private hospitals listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand are predicted to generate over $3 billion in 2015, a 15 percent increase from the year before, according to Kasikorn Bank.

In Singapore, whose land size is slightly larger than that of Seoul, foreign patients spent $584 million for treatment in the country in 2013.

Korea is far behind in terms of both revenue from foreign patients, which was 556.9 billion won in 2014, and recognition for treatment of serious diseases.

‘Politics undermine Korea's potential for medical tourism'

Imagine a hospital with the newest equipment and world-class cancer specialists from Johns Hopkins Hospital and SNUH. And the hospital is only 30 minutes away from both Incheon International Airport and Seoul. Better yet, most patients and their families are rich and need to stay nearby for at least days or weeks.

"It would have been great for the future of medical tourism, if the hospital had been built," Bang said. "But it never was."

Bang, a world-famous researcher in gastric cancer treatment, played a pivotal role in having the two hospitals sign an MOU six years ago to build an international hospital and a biomedical research center in the Songdo International Business District in Incheon.

He believed, for Korea's medical tourism to grow in the long term, it would be critical to have such facilities, where serious diseases such as cancer can be studied and treated.

"I was going to give up everything that I had to work there," Bang said. "I was searching for ways to improve Korea's medical system at that time. And I thought SNUH's partnership with the U.S. hospital would create a synergy that the medical system badly needed."

In Songdo, his plan was to train medical workers from developing countries, which would have opened great business opportunities for Korean hospitals to build their branches outside Korea later.

The Incheon Metropolitan Government predicted that the project, in the short-term, would create jobs for at least 5,000 workers, including some 500 doctors and 2,000 nurses as well as a large inflow of foreign capital worth between $200 and $300 million.

However, a related bill was delayed at the National Assembly. Lawmakers remained reluctant to take the initiative, in fear of losing supporters who did not like the idea of allowing for-profit hospitals in the country. Johns Hopkins Hospital eventually scrapped the deal and left.

"Politicians and government officials were opposed to the plan without plausible reasons or were simply indifferent," Bang said. "After attempting to make it happen for five years, I gave up."

But in December, the government gave the green light to Greenland Group of China to build Korea's first foreign-owned for-profit hospital on Jeju Island.

But many experts are skeptical that the 47-bed hospital, which is expected to open in 2017 with only nine doctors and 28 nurses, will be able to make a significant dent in medical tourism as its location is far away from Seoul.

Pioneer of clinical trials in Korea

Does a drug work? Does it work better than other drugs available? Is it safe? Clinical trials are a necessary process to answer these questions.

However, until the late 1980s, no pharmaceutical firms in Korea dared to make investment in developing new drugs, which is expensive, slow and chancy.

When LG Life Science took the brave first step in 1987, Bang was one of the key researchers, along with SNUH Prof. Kim Noh-kyeong, Korea's pioneering oncologist.

From there, he participated in numerous clinical trials with local and foreign drug makers and played a vital role in developing some new anti-cancer drugs, including Sunpla, Korea's first.

Bang became a household name in the global drug industry in 2010, when he revealed the study results that demonstrated the dramatic effect of Crizotinib, an anti-lung cancer drug designed to target a specific genetic mutation.

"Since 2005, I have tried very hard to participate in phase 1 trials, which have enormous scientific value," Bang said. "This is also very important for cancer patients because they can get opportunities to try out effective new medicines earlier."

Today, Bang is one of Korea's most decorated researchers, who has published more than 380 papers in international medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet.

He said his next goal is to make the SNUH Biomedical Research Institute one of the world's best medical research centers.

"In terms of amount of clinical trials of all phases, SNUH is already the world's No. 1. Now, I am focusing more on improving the quality of research," Bang said.

The education of young researchers is another great interest of his. "Now we have great infrastructure for medical care and research. But after all, it's the people that do the job," he said.