A research team from St. Mary's Hospital found obese males who had diabetes had a higher risk of getting bladder cancer than the general population - 2.88 times more likely, to be exact.Bladder cancer is the eighth most commonly occurring cancer among Korean males, according to St. Mary’s.The team led by Professor Hah You-shin used big data from the National Health Insurance Service to per
The recent medical malpractice of Korean actress Han Ye-seul has brought the topic of medical mishaps regarding celebrities and the handling of them to the forefront of public discussion.Experts are now regarding physician’s handling of Han’s case as starkly different from that of the late Korean signer Shin Hae-chul’s case a couple of years ago. Han recently uploaded a picture of a botche
A research team from Samsung Medical Center said they uncovered genes related to diet and developed the country’s first customized weight maintenance model based on genes.The team led by Dr. Kim Jin-ho from the Samsung Genome Institute found genetic mutations related to obesity could change the degree of obesity of an individual. The study, which examined about 8,800 Koreans who
“Medical education is all about how to make good doctors through education in a continuum. Because medicine is continually changing and something new is coming, you have to keep studying. Medical education starts from undergraduate studies and lasts a lifetime,” Professor Ahn Duck-sun said.Ahn, recently designated as the winner of the Korea Medical Association-Pfizer International Cooperation
Korea’s medical and pharmaceutical industries have reached a global level over the past years. Such exponential growth has made the country one of the major players in the world. Against this backdrop, Korea Biomedical Review has decided to hear opinions from foreign mission chiefs here on how they view the country is doing concerning healthcare system, research & development, and international co
Korean actress Han Ye-seul Saturday uploaded a picture of two scars on her body, saying that she suffered from a “medical accident” while getting a lipoma, or a fatty tissue lump, removed.Lipomas are soft, movable, and painless lumps found under the skin. Although they are classified as tumors, most are harmless. They are commonly found on the upper back, shoulder, and abdomen with around one
The Korean Neuropsychiatric Association said Thursday that it would add an ethics portion to the exam for psychiatric specialists following a controversial psychiatrist tweeting that a top Korean celebrity had bipolar disorder in December.The psychiatrist Kim Hyun-chul publicly claimed through a series of tweets that top star You Ah-in displayed symptoms of acute hypomania without having any e
German medical device firm B. Braun said Thursday that it named Stephan Soyka as the managing director of the company’s Korean branch.B. Braun is a global medical device company that records around 9 trillion won ($8.43 billion) in sales and operates in 64 countries."I am very pleased to join the company as the general manager of the Korean branch, located in a country acknowledged throug
A new meta-analysis from the National Cancer Center has pointed out that type 1 diabetes raises the risk of several types of cancer.Professor Myung Seung-kwon from NCC's International Cancer University worked with graduate school student Mukete F. Sona to conduct a meta-analysis of 15 observational studies to uncover the relationship between type 1 diabetes and cancer.Findings showed t
The number of foreigners getting medical treatment in Korea dropped 11.7 percent, marking the first decline since the government allowed medical institutions to bring foreign patients in 2009 actively, a government agency said Wednesday.The drop in the number of foreign patients resulted in a 26 percent slash, or 220.8 billion won, in medical revenue from 860.6 billion won ($805.6 million) in
Thirty-six Koreans commit suicide every day. That translates into one death every 40 minutes.But that has long ceased to be news here. Korea has held the title of “suicide nation” among OECD countries. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare Tuesday, about 13,000 people ended their lives in 2016, including 1,900 individuals in their 30s, 2,600 in their 40s, and 2,700 in their 50s.A
Roche Korea said that its breast cancer therapy Perjeta got the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety’s expanded approval as an adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapy to treat HER2+ breast cancer patients.“HER2-positive breast cancer has a higher risk of recurrence than general breast cancer, and despite current post-operative adjuvant therapies, more than one in four patients have experienced recurrence
Professor Yun Ik-jin of Konkuk University Medical Center's (KUMC) department of surgery will get 1.29 billion won ($1.2 million) in funding from the Rural Development Administration to develop a method of xenotransplantation using pig organs.Xenotransplantation, also called cross-species transplantation, refers to grafting or transplanting organs or tissues between different animal species
Handok said Monday that it signed a sales contract with Astellas Korea to sell the latter’s SGLT-2 inhibitor diabetes therapy Suglat in Korea. Handok will be in charge of domestic distribution, marketing, and sales.Suglat, launched in Korea in 2015, was co-developed by Astellas Japan and Kotobuki Pharmaceutical and is the most prescribed SGLT-2 inhibitor in the neighboring country, Handok said
GemVax & KAEL said that it proved clinical efficacy of GV1001 on benign prostatic hyperplasia through a phase 2 trial and recently had its results published in the British Journal of Urology International.“This paper, which was presented at both domestic and international conferences – has now been published in the BJUI,” CEO Song Hyoung-gon said.The randomized, placebo-controlled, single-
Humedix, a Huons Global subsidiary, said it got approvals for both Revitalrex syringe and Revitalrex prefilled syringe, both of which are polydeoxyribonucleotide (PDRN) sodium injections used to regenerate the skin.Humedix noted that securities firms estimate the global regenerative medicine market to grow 21 percent annually to hit $32 billion by 2018. Against this backdrop, the company expec
Telehealth, often used interchangeably with telemedicine, refers to healthcare providers using electronic, telecommunications technology to meet, examine, diagnose, and treat patients from a distance. This remote, long-distance method of contacting, caring for, and monitoring patients is changing how healthcare is being delivered around the world, according to Yulun Wang, founder of InTouch Health
GE Healthcare Life Sciences Korea said Monday that it would provide 2.5 billion won ($2.33 million) in technical and resource support to small- to medium-sized biotech firms that need help developing a biopharmaceutical manufacturing process.Big biotechnology firms such as Samsung BioLogics and Celltrion primarily dominate Korea’s biotech industry and benefit from government policies that back
Researchers at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (SNUBH) have found a method to differentiate types of vertigo stemming from possibly fatal brain diseases and other nonfatal causes.Dizziness, although commonly experienced and overlooked, can be dangerous if it is a symptom of other more severe brain conditions. Vertigo also varies in type to encompass a spinning sensation to the feeli
Roche’s lung cancer therapy got the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety’s approval last week to be used as first-line therapy for a specific type of lung cancer, Roche Korea said Thursday.Alecensa (alectinib) has been used since April last year to treat anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) positive non-small cell lung cancer patients who had previous treatment with Xalkori (crizotinib) but whose tumo