The report released by Hyundai Research Institute on Thursday shows South Korea’s healthcare industry is not as prepared for the fourth industrial revolution as the U.S., the EU and Japan while slightly faring slightly better against China. (Image: Kobiz Media)
SEOUL, Nov. 3 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s healthcare technology is trailing behind the U.S. and Japan, particularly in research and development, a new report has revealed.
The report released by Hyundai Research Institute on Thursday shows South Korea’s healthcare industry is not as prepared for the fourth industrial revolution as the U.S., the EU and Japan while slightly faring slightly better against China.
The gap between South Korea and China shrank even further when it came to new drug development and genomics.
The South Korean government and companies fell short of research and development investment in medical technology, as OECD data in 2015 showed the government’s medical research and development accounted for only 8.4 percent of the total R&D budget.
In the meantime, the U.S. and the U.K allotted over 23 percent of their R&D budgets to the healthcare industry, with the U.S. spending 20 times more than South Korea.
A similar trend was observed in the business sector, as South Korean companies’ medical R&D investment stood at $1.64 billion, one tenth of what Japanese companies spent, and one fortieth of the medical R&D spending by U.S. businesses in the same year.
A shortage of medical staff also emerged as an issue in the South Korean medical sector, with the number of R&D staff members estimated at 9,328 in 2014, trailing far behind Japan and Germany with 41,209 and 27,943, respectively.
As South Korea began to train staff for medical big data analysis after 2010, drafting policy to allow collection and utilization of medical big data has also been slow, the report said.
It was only earlier this year that a public and private joint healthcare big data division was launched as part of the government’s initiative to approach big data more actively in the medical field.
South Korea’s healthcare technology is trailing behind the U.S. and Japan, particularly in research and development, a new report has revealed. (Image: Yonhap)
Choi Sung-hyun, the senior researcher at Hyundai Research Institute who conducted the research, said the South Korean public’s sensitivity about private information is making it difficult to pass information law reforms to vitalize the medical big data industry, urging the government and hospitals to increase R&D investment.
“As the current medical technology industry is slow, the government needs to encourage joint R&B investment projects between hospitals and companies, while helping discover and support startups with potential in the medical field,” Choi said.
Hyunsu Yim (hyunsu@koreabizwire.com)
