“We wanted to enter into the Australian market but we couldn’t find the opportunity. so, we have participated in this digital healthcare roadshow in Australia with the Korea Health Industry Development Institute for the first time to find a new opportunity,” says Hong-Jin Kim, a director of Insung Information, who visited Melbourne.
The cutting-edge nine companies from Korea digital health industry participated in the 2019 digital healthcare roadshow in Melbourne which hosted by the KOTRA (Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency) Melbourne.
The roadshow, held at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre on October 21 drew large numbers of buyers and officials from the Australian healthcare industry.
Hong-Jin Kim explained about their Tele-health business and predicted that Australia could become a leading market in this area.
Hong-Jin Kim, a director of Insung Information Source: SBS Korean
“As an aging society progressed, it became a major concern on how to service this large number of people, and how to provide quality services at an appropriate cost. I think Australia is concerning about this same with Korea,” he says.
“Tele-health is the most effective way to deliver healthcare services through IT. I think there will be more opportunities in the future, especially as the number of senior citizens who are familiar with IT is increasing. So I'm here to look for opportunities to create new models for healthcare services.”
Yong Seop Byeon, Director General and Senior Trade Commissioner for KOTRA Melbourne said the roadshow was organised to boost the overseas expansion of Korean medical services and support overseas shipments of medical ICT field.
"As you know, Korea is a world-class country in the field of digital utilisation. It's a country with a lot of digital medical technology. I can assure this would be a meaningful occasion for top professionals in the fields who have deep connections with academia, industries and the government.”
In the Republic of Korea, ‘ubiquitous connectivity’ is not some inspirational industry buzz word. It’s a way of life. With lightning-fast connections to streaming wireless Internet on a range of Health devices, Koreans are proudly some of the most connected and Digital-oriented people on the planet. South Koreans have the right to universal healthcare, ranking first in the OECD for healthcare access.
Yong Seop Byeon, Director General and Senior Trade Commissioner for KOTRA Melbourne Source: SBS Korean
The satisfaction of healthcare has been consistently among the highest in the world – South Korea was rated as the fourth most efficient healthcare system by Bloomberg. In addition, the country reigns supreme in the Bloomberg Index of ‘Most Innovative Economies'.
Yong Seop Byeon hopes the roadshow will bring out many cooperative projects between Korean and Australian companies.
"I think the first step could be the strategic projects between Korea's leading medical IT companies and Australian hospitals and universities. We need to understand technology first, and we need to understand what the Australian market needs," he says.
"The field test or pilot project would be the first thing we need. So I hope many of these projects come out through this roadshow”
Teakyun Song, a director of Korea Healthcare Industry Development Institute says Korea's e-health service levels are among the best in the world.
“In Korea, ICT technologies have been developed a lot. As a result, e-health service has been improved in the hospital field. In Korea, most hospitals are using EMR. Data generated by all hospitals are stored and can be utilized in EMR processing," he says.
Teakyun Song, a director of Korea Healthcare Industry Development Institute Source: SBS Korean
"We can use this data to treat people remotely and we had a lot of research on AI field as well. However, it's not really been used for patient care yet because of privacy issues. ”
Teakyun Song explains that it is time to reach a social consensus on privacy issues first.
“Technically, AI and 3D printing technologies are very advanced in Korea. But, there is no social consensus yet about the privacy in Korean society. I'm going to tell you that the technologies that we've created using data actually can be applied in the medical field, but in terms of use, social consensus is going on right now."
Song says he wants to share Korea's advanced digital technologies with Australia, as well as take a look at Australia's social consensus experience.
“We know that Australia has made a lot of progress in the use of data through social consensus. How did Australia create a social consensus? How Australia use the data through a social consensus? We want to listen to your experience in this area. I believe we can be a good partner and make a lot of progress if we work together.”
Dr Mohan Karunanithi , a group Leader of the Australian e-Health Research Centre, CSIRO said he is very interested in the collaboration between Korean and Australian medical institutions.
“We are an open partner with the healthcare organisation. Not just in Australia but we opened to partnering with other countries health organization to improve the general well-being of the public or the community so we would be quite interested in having a collaboration opportunity with Korean health organisations.”
Yong Seop Byeon, a director General for KOTRA Melbourne hopes that more Korean medical companies will be able to make inroads into Australia.
Dr. Mohan Karunanithi , a group Leader of the Australian e-Health Research Centre, CSIRO Source: SBS Korean
“I hope that many Korean companies enter into Australian market because the Australian market can be a very nice test bed market to enter into the USA or Europe market later.”
