보건복지부 영문홈페이지

Opening of Medical Korea 2023

A Journey for a Better Daily Life and Future

- The first large-scale in-person event in three years

since the COVID 19 pandemic outbreak -

□ Medical Korea 2023, hosted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (Minister Cho, KyooHong) and organized by Korea Health Industry Development Institute (President Cha Soon-do), will be held on March 23-24, 2023 at the COEX Convention Center in Seoul.

□ Launched in 2010, the “Medical Korea” marks its 13th year. With the theme of “A Journey for a Better Daily Life and Future”, it will be the first in-person event to be held in three years since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which resulted in strict international travel restrictions.

○ Medical Korea is the largest global healthcare conference held in Korea where international public health experts gather from around the world.

○ The conference will provide a forum for them to discuss ways to expedite a complete return to normalcy and present a vision for the future by enhancing the international profile of Medical Korea as a brand, in addition to jump-starting the global medical tourism industry in response to sporadic outbreaks of infectious diseases and digital transformation.

○ Medical Korea, which serves as a forum for global scholars to share the latest global healthcare trends through lectures and discussions, has helped raise the international profile of the Korean medical industry through G2G cooperation including for referrals of government-funded patients, training for medical professionals from other countries, exports of medical services, and contributed to creating meaningful medical services markets.

□ Medical Korea 2023 features the opening ceremony, an awards ceremony to honorees of special merit, an academic conference on a wide spectrum of subjects through four forums and six seminars, business meetings, Medical Korea Promotion Hall, and G2G meetings.

○ (Opening Ceremony) The opening ceremony will consist of opening speeches, congratulatory remarks, a merit award ceremony, and keynote speeches.

- (Merit Award Ceremony) The commendations will be presented to a total of 20 honorees who have contributed in the field of overseas expansion of healthcare and international patient attraction.

* President’s Commendation(1), Prime Minister’s Commendations(4), Minister of Health and Welfare Commendations(15)

- (Keynote Speeches) In the first keynote speech, Dr. Jamie Metzl, a futurologist, and the founder & chairman of OneShared.World (www.oneshared.world) will share his views on the future of the medical industry, based on recent developments in AI, genetics and biotechnology.

- In the second keynote speech, Kakao Healthcare CEO Hwang Hee will talk about the future of digital healthcare including the efficiency of medical services provided with mobile devices and their roles as a platform.

○ (Conference) The conference will proceed with four forums and six seminars on a variety of subjects with “The Latest Trends of Global Medical Tourism and Opportunities for Cross-Border Healthcare Cooperation” as one of its four forums. At the conference, a total of 65 scholars will discuss ways to recover the numbers of foreign patients back to pre-pandemic levels and boost Korean medical services sector by increasing the share of Korean medical services in overseas markets.

- (Forums) The opening ceremony will be followed by 27 presentations which will be made at four different forums: “The Latest Trends of Global Medical Tourism and Opportunities for Cross-Border Healthcare Cooperation”, “Online Training for Foreign Medical Professionals” (MKA e-Class), “Restart Strategies for the International Healthcare in the Next Normal”, and “Healthcare Innovations in the era of MyData”.

- The first forum, “The Latest Trends of Global Medical Tourism”, is scheduled in the afternoon of March 23 and global healthcare experts from China, Singapore, Malaysia and other countries will introduce the latest industry trends and explain medical tourism policies in their own countries.

- At the “Online Training for Medical Professionals” forum, it will feature a surgical skills course for international and Korean medical professionals and will be followed by presentations of online training program participants about their own program experiences.

- (Seminars) A total of 26 presentations will be made at six seminars on cross-border medical projects that the government is pursuing, as well as on shared success of municipalities, academic bodies and industry associations.

- Some 30 healthcare experts will talk about digital healthcare, Korea-Central Asia cooperation on rehabilitation medicine, marketing strategies for medical tourism, overseas expansion of Korea’s healthcare services, and trends of cross-border medical service projects of municipalities.

○ (Business Meetings) At the business meetings, foreign-based buyers and Korean healthcare industry representatives will gather to discuss ways for international patients attraction and overseas expansion of healthcare services.

- Booths for business meetings will be set up in a conference room in COEX and some of the participants will participate in meetings via online video conference platforms.

○ (Medical Korea Promotion Hall) There will be a total of 19 individual booths including the digital healthcare experience booth operated in connection with Korean International Medical and Hospital Equipment Show(KIMES), where visitors can get hands-on experiences on the latest digital healthcare technologies, as well as the Korean Accreditation Hospital for Foreign patients (KAHF) and Korea International Medical Association(KIMA) booths.

□ Bilateral ministerial meetings including those among ministers, vice ministers, and high-ranking government officials will also be held on March 24, concurrently with Medical Korea 2023.

○ (Korea-Indonesia Ministerial Meeting) Minister Cho, KyooHong and Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin of Indonesia will meet to discuss ways to expand bilateral cooperation in the fields of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medical equipment and to facilitate exportation of Korean medical services to Indonesia.

○ (Ministerial Meetings with Armenia, Romania and Kazakhstan) 2nd Vice-Minister Park Minsoo will meet with his counterparts Lena Nanushyan of Armenia, Catalin Bisean of Romania and Beibut Yessenbayev of Kazakhstan

- To discuss ways of promoting bilateral cooperation in the healthcare industry including pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and digital healthcare and in healthcare services, such as providing Korean medical services in these countries and inviting medical professionals from these countries to Korea for training.

□ In his welcoming speech at the opening ceremony, 2nd Vice Minister Park Minsoo said, “The recent pandemic has taught us a valuable lesson on the importance of securing sovereignty in healthcare technology. The government will undertake all the necessary changes to create a sustainable healthcare system”.

○ “In the digital transformation era marked by a paradigm shift in medical, healthcare, and social care services, Korea is better positioned to emerge as a global leader in this sector owing to having world-leading information and communications technology (ICT) and big data.

○ To this end, the government will concentrate all its resources and support on creating an ecosystem for healthcare industry’s innovation to turn the digital and bio healthcare industry into a next-generation growth engine for the country and to grow as one of Korea’s core strategic industries,” the 2nd Vice Minister Park added.

□ In his opening speech, Korea Health Industry Development Institute President Cha Soon-do said, “In response to the global pandemic crisis, Korea could rise as a leader of the global healthcare industry by analyzing global healthcare trends and responding to them in timely fashion.”

○ He also added, “I hope the conference will prove to be a timely forum for us to share information where we can better predict the future of the global healthcare industry in the post-pandemic era.”