The government recently designated Aug. 17 as a temporary national holiday to five a rest time to medical professionals and the public, tired from fighting Covid-19. However, the medical community said it would be almost impossible to take a short break on the day.Four out of the five largest hospitals said they would continue medical services on Aug. 17. Midsize hospitals and small clinics wi
Simply adding a blood test to a regular health screening could detect Alzheimer’s disease early, local researchers said.A joint research team of Park Kyung-il, a professor at the Department of Neurology of Seoul National University Hospital Healthcare System Gangnam Center, and PeopleBio released th
The Korean Medical Association said it has decided to stage a nationwide strike on Aug. 14 and encourage all KMA member physicians and medical school students to join it.Leaders of the sub-group medical associations from cities and provinces held an emergency meeting in Osong, North Chungcheong Province, on Saturday and determined the schedule for the nationwide walkout.Last week, KMA Pres
The medical community said they would stage a nationwide strike after the government and the ruling party confirmed their plan to increase medical school admissions quotas.Choi Dae-zip, president of the Korean Medical Association, said this year’s first nationwide strike would occur either on Aug. 14 or Aug. 18, at a news conference at the National Assembly Thursday.The group held the news
A real-time, non-face-to-face biometric signal monitoring system for patients with an infectious disease has obtained regulatory approval as a medical device.The government supported the development of the device to control and prevent Covid-19 infections.The Ministry of Science and ICT said Tuesday that the biometric signal monitoring system won the nod. The ministry worked with the Minis
The medical community and pharmacist groups spoke with one voice to block herbal medicines from receiving national health insurance coverage. Seven medical groups, including the Korean Medical Association (KMA), the Korean Hospital Association (KHA), and the Korean Pharmaceutical Association (KPA), launched an emergency response committee against reimbursement for scientifically unverified her
Healthcare experts expressed positive views on the government’s push for the introduction of telemedicine as part of the “Korean New Deal” policy.Kwon Soon-man, a Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Health professor, said it would be excessive to make non-face-to-face healthcare service illegal.His comments came at an academic debate on Covid-19 and the national health insu
The Korea National Institute of Health, a research body under the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said it would hold a video conference with the Italian National Institute of Health to discuss cooperation for joint research to develop a Covid-19 vaccine and a treatment. Earlier, the two institutes agreed to exchange scholars and human resources and held a joint symposium to s
Seoul National University Hospital’s Rare Disease Center said it has registered the first patient to begin the National Bio Big Data project.The National Bio Big Data project collects clinical and genomic data of patients with rare diseases to identify the disease's cause and conduct research for treatment. The project involves the Ministry of Health and Welfare, related government agencies, t
The Korean and Danish health authorities have recently met to discuss how to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.The National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) said officials from the Embassy of Denmark in Korea, Danish Ministry of Health, and Copenhagen City Government met with Korean officials from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Seoul Metropolitan Government, and the Korean Parliamentarian Forum
Choi Dae-zip, president of the Korean Medical Association, called the government’s four healthcare policies “evil" and refused to talk with the authorities.The government has been pushing to introduce telemedicine, run a pilot project to allow the national health insurance benefit for traditional herbal medicine, establish a state-run medical school, and increase the annual quota for medical s
Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (SNUBH)’s Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Department on Friday offered a live surgery using eXtended Reality (XR) for the Asian Society for Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery (ASCVTS)’s Asia Thoracoscopic Surgery Education Program (ATEP).The medical training platform, called XR Class, allows teachers and learners to access a virtual class from anyw
Remote patient care amid the Covid-19 crisis minimized the risk of viral infections and helped physicians provide safe and efficient service, a local study said.The research team of Professor Kim Kyung-hwan at the Hospital Information Office of Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) released the study on the IT-based management of clinically healthy Covid-19 patients at a living and treatme
Around a hundred physicians from across the nation gathered in central Seoul to protest the government’s plan of allowing traditional herbal medicine to get the national health insurance benefit.The Korean Medical Association (KMA) held the rally at a square in Cheonggyecheon, central Seoul, Sunday to oppose the plan and urge the government to run the national health insurance program separate
The Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) said it would conduct a follow-up clinical study of remdesivir, an experimental treatment for Covid-19.The hospital confirmed remdesivir’s efficacy on Covid-19 in a global study, led by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). The ACTT-1 study was on 1,063 patients at 73 hospitals in 10 countries from February to April.The ACTT-1 trial out
People need to pay more attention to nutrition and physical activities to maintain a healthy life, especially in the Covid-19 pandemic, health experts said.Professor Lim Soo at the Internal Medicine Department of Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Professor Lim Hyun-jung at the Department of Medical Nutrition of Kyung Hee University, and Professor Jean-Pierre Després at the Department
The popular medical drama “Hospital Playlist” depicted many cases of living donor liver transplants, including a story of a father who lost seven kilograms in two weeks to be fit to donate his liver to his daughter.In Korea, about 20 people per 1 million are living liver donors, is the highest in the world. However, Korea and other countries have not produced any study on the long-term surviva
Yongin Severance Hospital, affiliated with Yonsei University College of Medicine, said it would provide a new paradigm of patient care with a next-generation patient safety system and better patient convenience in the digital era. “Yongin Severance Hospital is a digitally innovative hospital that combines 136 years of the Severance's medical experience with 5G-based cutting-edge information an
Korea has registered 40 patents of Covid-19 diagnostic technologies since the Armed Forces Medical Command filed the first one in February, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) said.The number recorded a rapid increase, compared to 19 patents registered during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003 or 32 patents during the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS
Providing hospitalist service 24 hours a day and seven days a week showed better clinical results than offering the service only on weekdays, a study showed.Professor Han Seung-jun of the Internal Medicine at the Seoul National University Hospital and his colleagues compared the clinical outcomes of 513 hospitalized patients between weekday-only and 24-hour/7-day hospitalist systems, and publi