Prime Minister Han Duk-soo announced on Friday that the government would accept the request from six national university chiefs to reduce the targeted number of medical school student seats by up to 50 percent from the original 2,000.Consequently, the adjustment in medical school enrollment quotas w
We inhabit a plastic-laden world where plastic fragments into minuscule pieces, rather than decomposing. These plastic particles have been discovered by scientists in various human organs such as the lungs, liver, placenta, breast milk, and blood. How harmful are these microplastics to our health? A
In the past month, it felt like I was subjecting my body to accelerated aging experiments. For starters, sleep remained elusive. As I've emphasized before, sufficient sleep is crucial for maintaining healthy eating habits and maximizing the benefits of physical activity. Continuous sleep deprivation
"A general material," or "Takes after mom."Obstetricians have made such vague remarks, providing only speculative indirect information to parents who wondered about fetal sex.From now on, however, they can directly tell whether the fetus is a boy or a girl.That’s because the Constitutional Court rec
Menopausal women who experienced an early onset of vasomotor symptoms (VMSs), commonly known as hot flashes and night sweats, are at a higher risk of developing depressive symptoms, according to a study by Korean researchers.Professors Ryu Seung-ho, Chang Yoo-soo, and Dr. Choi Hye-rin at the Center
One of the biggest issues in Korea these days is the conflict between the government and doctors over increasing the number of medical school students. Hit hardest in this process are cancer patients. When people are diagnosed with cancer, they become impatient and want to get treatment as soon as p
There are no foods that you shouldn’t eat in the morning. A common concern is that eating a banana on an empty stomach in the morning will cause magnesium and potassium to enter the blood, upsetting the balance. However, there is no evidence to support this claim. One banana contains 300 mg of potas
Korea's healthcare system is deformed, with private medical institutions accounting for over 90 percent of the total. This system is unparalleled worldwide, as the private market overwhelms the public health system. National health insurance exists, but the health authorities have failed to appropri
Merck said it would spend 300 million euros (about $328 million) to build a new bioprocessing plant in Daejeon, which would create around 300 additional jobs by the end of 2028. The decision marks the largest investment by Merck's Life Science business sector in the Asia-Pacific region to date, the
The Ministry of Health and Welfare said it issued a public notice of return-to-work to 1,308 trainee physicians who walked off their jobs in a protest against the government’s plan to sharply increase medical school admissions next year. The public notice took effect as of Tuesday. The ministry said
To the Chairperson of the Korean Federation of Severe Disease Patients,Dear Chairperson Kim Sung-joo,I would like to express my respect for your dedication to protecting the rights and interests of severely ill patients on behalf of the seven organizations representing patients with the most challen
Samsung Medical Center (SMC) came under fire after requiring an “obedience pledge” from public health doctors who were newly deployed to fill in the void of striking trainee physicians.Recently, SMC issued “service commitment and consent forms” to the newly deployed public health doctors.The consent
The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) said on Thursday that it has named three vaccine developers as co-recipients of the 2024 IVI-SK bioscience Park MahnHoon Award for developing an oral cholera vaccine, and Covid-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines, respectively. Jan Holmgren, a
Korean medical professors who have announced their resignations, urging dialogue with the government, have issued a stark warning of an impending healthcare crisis in the country. They highlight that hospitals, which have been reducing their services for nearly a month following the departure of tra
The challenge with preparing “twigim” -- the Korean street food similar to Japanese tempura -- at home lies in managing the leftover oil. Disposing of it after a single use can feel wasteful. Therefore, the question arises: how many times can oil for frying be reused? The answer is contingent upon s
The government allowed "physician assistant" (PA) nurses to practice more at healthcare sites from Friday, issuing supplementary guidelines on the scope of practice for nurses amid ongoing walkouts by trainee doctors and ensuing medical disruptions.The move came as neither trainee doctors nor the go
My Feb. 22 post on X, formerly Twitter, garnered 412,000 views, 723 retweets, and 709 likes as of March 1 at noon. Two days before Daeboreum, a Korean holiday commemorating the first full moon of the New Lunar Year, I shared a brief insight into its significance and attached a photo showcasing tradi
A team of researchers led by Professor Kim Sung-won of the Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine has successfully implanted the "world's first" customized and 3D-bioprinted artificial trachea based on another person's adult stem cells for a patient with an intractable tracheal defect, Cat
Severance Hospital said it recently marked a milestone of 500 liver cancer radioembolization procedures. Radioembolization for liver cancer, a minimally invasive treatment, involves the insertion of a catheter into the femoral artery of the leg, guiding it to the hepatic artery, and injecting micros
The role of artificial intelligence (AI) is growing in the healthcare field. There are a lot of movements to incorporate AI. As global big tech companies, including Google and Microsoft, have made strides in healthcare AI, the area has evolved to the point where it is applied to real-world healthcar