By Kim Tae-jong
Korea is moving fast toward an aged society, raising concerns over increasing financial burdens due to high medical costs.
A top official from a leading global healthcare device maker said one solution to effectively tackle the issue lies in patient-centered healthcare.
“Medical treatment may involve massive pain and expenditure,” Kim Won-seop, a key account and growth leader at GE Healthcare Korea, said in an interview with The Korea Times, Monday. “So, patient-centered healthcare, which includes early diagnosis of diseases and non-invasive or minimal invasive treatment, is critical.”
According to a Royal Bank of Scotland report in June, Korea’s progress toward an aged society is the fastest in the world.
Kim pointed out that as a result Korea faces a challenge due to growing health care demand.
“With longevity, the probability of chronic diseases increases significantly and therefore, costs in healthcare are becoming a huge burden,” he said. “But advanced technology used by experts can drastically reduce medical costs through early screening and customized therapies.”
In this sense, patient-centered healthcare is increasingly becoming foundational in the medical sector to offer optimizing care and reduce health expenditure, and GE Healthcare Korea has actively promoted the proliferation of the idea with its partners, he said.
He said he believed a truly patient-centered system may provide higher quality health care, improve patients’ experiences and increase efficiency.
In fact, the company has taken so-called “healthymagination” strategy, to provide better healthcare for more people through innovations that lowers the cost, increases the access and improves quality.
The issue of aging society is at the same time a business opportunity for firms like GE Healthcare.
According to the Korea Food and Drug Administration, the market size for medical devices here was estimated at 3.9 trillion won in 2010; and it is believed that the market will keep growing due to more patients with chronic diseases and people’s interest in well-being.
GE Healthcare now has a range of products and services that include medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies.
Some of these are highly acclaimed in the market as well as by clinicians and practitioners as they are believed to enhance patient-centered healthcare.
For example, ExAblate, is a device which incorporates both ultrasound and MRI technologies. It is used for uterine fibroid treatment and research activities regarding brain disease treatment. It is the only non-invasive uterine fibroid treatment method officially approved by the U.S. FDA.
The firm’s innovative Optima MR430s has been developed to tackle problems of existing MRI scans. It allows the scanning of certain body parts such as arms, legs, elbows, ankles, and knees, as it is smaller in size than the whole-body MRI.
GE Healthcare is not just a developer of state-of-the art medical devices and equipment but also aims at becoming a coordinator to help medical institutes deliver more sustainable and effective healthcare services that maintains cost efficiency and world-class quality.
“We are not just selling medical devices, but like in the U.S. and Europe, we want to co-develop various solutions and programs for local partner hospitals here so that they can be run in the most effective way, and medical staff can concentrate more on their primary work, namely treating patients,” he said.
In terms of medical equipment, Kim said Korea is one of the most advanced countries, and the nation’s medical human resources are at the highest level, so they have created synergy effects using high-tech devices that produce optimal results.
“I think Korea has adopted the most advanced technology in medicine, along with its excellent human resources, they have created synergy effects,” he said. “In molecular imaging and nuclear medicine, Korean physicians are among the world’s best.”
He also pointed out that there are also increasing demands for high-tech devices in hospitals that want to differentiate themselves from others, aiming at becoming a top class medical institute.
“Patients used to tend to just visit (nearby) hospitals, but now hospitals should compete to get more patients,” he said.
With the increasing importance of the Korean market, he said the GE Healthcare has increased support for the local unit and plans to develop it as one of the key business operations.
Currently, GE Healthcare operates a research center for ultrasound devices in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province and another research and development center in Songdo, Incheon.