Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (SNUBH) and Severance Hospital will start a medical business in Moscow, under the recent healthcare agreement between Korea and Russia. KT, the second-largest mobile carrier in Korea, will also conduct a pilot remote medical service in Russia, jointly with SNUBH.
Health and Welfare Minister Park Neung-hoo accompanied President Moon Jae-in on his visit to Russia and signed a memorandum of understanding on social welfare cooperation with Russia’s Labor and Social Affairs Minister Maxim Topilin.
Under the MOU, the two countries agreed to seek partnership in social welfare policies and programs, social welfare services, pension schemes, and to fight against low birth and aging.
In collaboration with the Moscow government, SNUBH will operate hospitals in Russia and Severance Hospital will establish a health checkup center.
SNUBH will run general hospitals equipped with more than 300 sickbeds within the Moscow’s Skolkovo International Medical Cluster. The Skolkovo International Medical Center acknowledges OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)-registered medical licenses and drugs and medical devices registered in member states of the OECD.
SNUBH will also team up with KT to offer remote medical services in a network among Siberian railway trains, provincial hospitals in Russia, and the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow. The company will run a pilot remote service to offer medical counseling and diagnosis from a base hospital, using a network of four provincial hospitals under the railway authorities, a Siberia transit train, and mobile diagnostic device.
In December, SNUBH and KT agreed with Russian Railways to cooperate in digital healthcare and to build a mobile health check-up solution for primary care at hospitals linked to Russian Railways.
At that time, the hospital and the mobile carrier demonstrated telemedicine by connecting three hospitals – Russian Railways Scientific Clinic Center in Moscow and two provincial hospitals in Tula and Yaroslavl, 200 and 300 kilometers, respectively, away from Moscow.
Severance Hospital agreed with Russia’s Sistema Group, Medsi Hospital Group, and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to build a diagnosis and treatment center for guests staying at Lotte Hotel Moscow.
Established in 1993, Sistema Group invests in various fields including finance, information/telecommunications, energy, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare. The company owns Medsi Hospital Group, composed of 39 medical institutions, which leads Russia’s private healthcare.
“The bilateral cooperation between Korea and Russia focused on attracting patients from the Far East such as Vladivostok. However, with the Korean president’s visit to Russia, Korea’s leading hospitals have begun to advance to Moscow, the capital of Russia,” Minister Park said.
“I hope that our cooperation in health and welfare will contribute to improving Russian people’s quality of life and forming amiable relations between the two countries,” he added.