The Ministry of Health and Welfare said it would push for a revision of the medical law to mandate a certain proportion of intensive care units (ICUs) to be single-person rooms, instead of multi-person rooms.Korea has 9,190 ICUs at 167 medical institutions with more than 300 hospital beds, and 76 pe
With the misuse and abuse of narcotic painkillers emerging as a social problem in Korea, there is a lot of attention on whether non-narcotic painkillers can be a solution.Narcotic analgesics suppress pain transmission to the central nervous system for patients who see little efficacy when taking ace
The government has reemphasized the need to increase the enrollment quota at medical schools.Meeting with reporters, Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Park Min-soo said the government would push to increase the number of doctors and expand essential healthcare.The Yoon Suk-yeol administration has
Many things are returning to pre-Covid-19 days after lifting the indoor mask mandate, but one area fails to recover its previous vigor – HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) tests at public health centers.According to a report by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) in 2021, 443,609
Insurance benefits for Hemlibra (emicizumab), a hemophilia A treatment supplied by JW Pharmaceutical, will likely be expanded to non-antibody patients, helping to ease their financial burden.The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) held a drug benefit evaluation committee on Thursda
Two rare disease treatments – Nefecon Cap (budesonide) and Pegcetacoplan Inj -- have been designated as subject to the innovative global product on a fast track (GIFT).The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Tuesday that it designated the two drugs as Nos. 2 and 3 products subject to GIFT.GIFT is
Cancer patients are calling for insurance coverage of new anticancer drugs, such as AstraZeneca’s non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatment Tagrisso and Daiichi Sankyo’s metastatic breast cancer treatment Enhertu.Both drugs have confirmed their effectiveness but have failed to overcome the high h
Algocare, a Korean healthcare startup, said that the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has launched a full-scale investigation into whether Lotte Healthcare stole Algocare's idea in developing Cazzle, Lotte Healthcare's nutrient dispenser.According to Algocare, the anti-trust watchdog sent investigators t
The government's recent plan to designate Gwangju as a tattoo regulation-free special zone is facing severe backlash from the Korea Medical Association (KMA), a group of about 130,000 doctors.The Korea Tattoo Federation (KTF) recently received an official letter of cooperation from the Ministry of H
Japan had been a strong ally of the Korean medical community in the controversy over the tattoo and semi-permanent makeup procedures.Faced with the argument that opening the way for tattoo and semi-permanent makeup procedures for non-medical people is a “global trend,” the domestic medical community
Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association (KPBMA) Chairman Won Hee-mok urged the government to establish a steering committee under the prime minister to integrate government policies and strategies for the local pharmaceutical and biopharma industry. The Yoon Suk-yeol administra
The quarantine authorities will provide Covid-19 vaccinations for infants and toddlers from 6 months to 4 years old.The health authorities said Friday that they would provide Covid-19 vaccination for infants and toddlers because of the continued resurgence in winter and the emergence of new mutation
The quarantine authorities will adjust the number of hospital beds designated for Covid-19 patients from 5,800 to 3,900.Explaining the background, the Central Disaster Relief Center said Friday that the spread of Covid-19 has eased somewhat, forcing it to readjust the number of Covid-19 beds and rea
The government will start Covid-19 vaccination for infants and toddlers from 6 months to 4 years old from Feb. 13.The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA)’s Covid-19 Vaccination Response Promotion Team said Friday that it would start Covid-19 vaccination for infants and young children
The BN.1 subvariant is becoming the new dominant strain in Korea, as the subvariant detection rate increased to 46.3 percent of the total Covid-19 cases last week, up 7.1 percentage points from the previous week, health authorities said.According to the government, the BN.1 variant is a subvariant r
The government has lowered the nationwide weekly risk level of Covid-19 to "low," the second lowest of the five-tier rating system, for the first time in 13 weeks."Last week, the daily average number of confirmed cases was 29,805, the lowest in 13 weeks," Kim Sung-ho, head of the interior ministry's
"Digital health is understood to mean the field of knowledge and practice associated with the development and use of digital technologies to improve health.”That was digital health as defined by the World Health Organization in 2021.The definition indicates that the core of digital health encompassi
As Korean cosmetic goods, including fillers and botulinum toxin, draw popularity in China on the back of the “K-beauty” craze, fake made-in-Korea goods are rampant in the Chinese market, officials said Wednesday.Korean government officials ferreted out 1 billion won ($81,122) worth of counterfeit Ko
The government said Koreans will no longer have to wear face masks indoors from Jan. 30, except for several places such as hospitals, buses, subways, and pharmacies. “During the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting on Friday, the government will discuss and finalize a pla
The Covid-19 positive rate for short-term foreign entrants from China remained in single digits for the sixth continuous day.According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters on Thursday, 347 short-term foreign residents among the 2,396 people who arrived from China and enter