The 39th annual international conference of the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua), officially kicked off on Sunday with the K-Walking parade around Bongeun Temple near Coex, in southern Seoul.

Korea is hosting 2,000 representatives from over 70 countries for the conference highlighting the theme of “Technology, Culture and Coproduction: Looking to the horizon of Quality and Safety.” The event will run for four days until Wednesday in COEX.

ISQua CEO Carsten Engel said a main reason for bringing the conference to Korea this year was to learn from Korea’s forward thinking with the introduction of modern technologies in healthcare.  

While walking around the temple, participants shared their excitement about different aspects of the conference which is being held in Korea for the first time.

Some nurses from Hong Kong explained that they were interested in how they can achieve quality improvement in their hospitals and wanted to interact with other nurses to share these common experiences. 

A Cambodian participant, Channa Sam Ol, who is a Quality Advisor for the U.S. HIV/AIDS funding Project, FHI360, and an ISQua fellow, noted that she has been consistently participating in ISQua conferences as part of her career and skill development.

“I am particularly looking forward to the sessions on quality improvement, digital health and learning from Covid-19 to make more resilient health platforms,” she said.

Another participant, Kathryn Turner, Psychiatrist and Executive Director at Metro North Mental Health in Queensland, Australia, will present on restorative justice, learning culture and suicide prevention. 

“I want to discover not just how we can improve learning but also promote healing after harm,” said Turner.

Korean participants from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA), Korea National Open University (KNOA) and Hanyang Cyber University also shared their excitement for the conference in the areas of patient reported outcomes (PROMs), integrated care and accreditation standards. 

“I think patient safety in Korea has grown a lot over the years so I am curious to compare how it is in other parts of the world,” said Professor Hwang Jeong-hae of the Division of Health Administration at Hanyang Cyber University. “There have been some unfortunate incidents regarding patient safety in the past in Korea but through integrated care, we are working on improving patient quality and safety.”

As many participants submitted abstracts on integrated care, I would like to find out how these participants address these issues in their respective countries, Hwang added.

Lee Wang-jun, Chairman of Myongji Hospital and President of the Korean Society for Quality in Health Care (KoSQua), delivered opening remarks before the start of the K-Walking parade which marked the beginning of the international conference and the end of the Mint Festival campaign including 110 hospitals across Korea to raise awareness and draw public support for medical quality management and patient safety activities.

“We are happy to welcome all participants to the biggest congress ever held by ISQua,” Lee said. “This mint color that we are wearing symbolizes resilience and recovery from trauma and accident and represents the safety and quality in healthcare and I hope this conference will be a place to share good memories and knowledge on quality and safety with each other.”