Physicians urged measures to prevent hospital-acquired infections, in the wake of the recent deaths of newborns at Ewha Womans University Medical Center caused by a bacterial infection.As young children are more vulnerable to nosocomial infections, both medical institutions and the government should work together with pediatricians to minimize preventable infections, pediatricians said.The
With the first inter-Korean summit in 11 years to take place on Friday, local pediatric physicians are calling for Seoul’s support measures to better take care of North Korean children’s health in preparation for reunification.Experts said the South should actively assist the North to proactively respond to infectious diseases of North Korean children, which would also lead to better health ca
The National Health Insurance Service said it would hold an international training program for healthcare experts from developing countries at President Hotel in central Seoul from April 10-19.The Korean health insurance agency has been holding the “International Training Course on Social Health Insurance” since 2004 to enhance healthcare workforce in developing countries, in collaboration wit
A local mental hospital has adopted a training program to nurture “peer supporters” who understand the need of mentally ill patients and motivate them to return to normal social life.Through the peer support program, which has already been implemented in advanced nations such as the U.S., people who recovered from a mental illness help peer patients get treated and recovered.In Korea, Yong
The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) signed an agreement with Bahrain’s Supreme Council of Health (SCH) Wednesday, to help establish health information system infrastructure for implementing the National Social Health Insurance Program (SEHATI). HIRA has been participating in the “SEHATI-IT Project” since March last year. Attending the ceremony were HIRA Pr
South Korea’s drug costs have steadily increased in recent years, due to expanded insurance coverage for serious illnesses, population aging, and rise in chronic diseases, government data showed.According to the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service ’s 2016 claims for insurance-covered drugs, the HIRA’s drug costs rose 4.23 percent a year on average from to 15.42 trillion won ($14.22 bi
Local medical institutions are trying out a variety of artificial intelligence-based technologies. Among them, Gachon University Gil Medical Center is at the front. Two years ago, it became the first local hospital to adopt IBM’s AI program, Watson for Oncology. Last year, the hospital was the first to adopt a humanoid, Pepper. This year, the hospital is building Internet-of-Things (IoT) wards, ra
The Ministry of Health and Welfare said on Friday it has additionally designated three hospitals as “intermediary clinical centers” to offer state-supported advanced medical devices. The three are Konyang University Hospital, Asan Medical Center, and Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital.Konyang hospital will get to use medical devices for the elderly patients’ eyes, ears, head, and neck,
The number of dialysis patients has been surging with population aging, as more and more people suffer from chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension in Korea. To ensure proper treatment and reduce costs, the government should designate dialysis as a “special disease” and directly manage dialysis patients, experts said Tuesday.According to data from the Health Insurance Review & Asse
AstraZeneca Korea and regulatory officials have finally agreed on the price of Tagrisso (ingredient: osimertinib), a treatment for patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-T790M mutation-positive non-small cell lung cancer.The National Health Insurance Service said Wednesday that it had completed the price talks with AstraZeneca at the NHIS headquarters after three sessions of neg
The rapid growth of elderly population has made dementia a social issue, forcing the Moon Jae-in administration to declare “state responsibility” for taking care of dementia patients. However, experts criticize the new government’s policy as “paper administration,” which fails to reflect medical reality properly. In reality, physicians hardly receive education to treat dementia patients, have
Provincial university hospitals using artificial intelligence have formed a consortium to compete against large hospitals in and around the Seoul metropolitan area.Six hospitals in five provinces said they formed the so-called AI Healthcare Consortium. The six are Gacheon University Gil Medical Center in Incheon, Konyang University Hospital in Daejeon, Pusan National University Hospital, Daegu
The National Health Insurance Service has punished 74 employees for the past four years due to a variety of wrongdoings such as personal information leakage, taking bribes, embezzlement and sexual harassment, a lawmaker, said Tuesday.One in five of those punished had leaked private information, raising an alarm that NHIS’ holding of big data on the Korean people’s subscription and medical info
The number of antibiotic-resistant infections has tripled in Korea this year from a year earlier because of the health authorities’ lax watch, a lawmaker said Friday.According to Rep. Jeon Jye-sook전혜숙 of the ruling Democratic Party, the number of infections with Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), an antibiotic-resistant virus, surged to 2,607 during the June-August period alone fro
Large university hospitals have shown strong enthusiasm toward the government’s pilot program to extend doctors’ consultation time to 15 minutes from the usual three minutes, to improve their quality of medical care.Officials from as many as 36 large hospitals attended the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s briefing on the “Pilot Project for In-depth Consultation at Tertiary Hospitals,” held at
Even though medical colleges or institutions punish people on charge of sexual violence or sexual harassment, there are many cases of offenders re-entering schools and hospitals.Accordingly, experts said medical colleges should provide education to prevent sexual violence and work out manuals of countermeasures that can be applied to all medical institutions to prevent sexual abuse, sexual har
The government will move to control “actual medical expense insurance” by enacting a related law governing its management, to increase the coverage of health insurance through turning uncovered items into covered ones, officials said Tuesday.Experts have pointed to the need to not only convert uncovered medical services and products into covered ones but improve the coverage of actual medical
South Korean cancer patients tend to transfer to other medical institutions twice on average during five years after the initial diagnosis, the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA)심평원 said in a report.According to the “HIRA’s Big Data Briefing,” half of the cancer patients moved to larger general hospitals to receive treatment. The farther the patients lived from the Seoul met
As low birthrate and population aging emerge as social problems, the public’s interests in taking care of seniors and children are mounting. The decade-old long-term care insurance for elderly citizens has also exposed its limitations as a policy, stressing the need for improving quality and expanding service.The Moon Jae-in administration recently announced it would set up “social service cor
The number of foreigners and expatriates living in Korea who receive medical treatments with insurance coverage has increased 49.2 percent over the past five years.The average increase rate was 10.6 percent, and insurance premiums they paid rose 14.2 percent a year on average. However, foreigners’ monthly medical bill was about 30,000 won ($26) less than Koreans’.According to the report of