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Cancer is thought to be synonymous with death and suffering. Therefore, it is easy to find cancer patients among our family and friends.According to the 2019 national cancer registration statistics in Korea, 1 out of 25 people (a total patient population of 2,147,503 people) are either receiving can
Opinion
Lee Bo-hyoung, CEO of Macoll Consulting Group
2022.07.29 12:05
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What would it be if we had to pick one piece of information most important for the genetic diagnosis of rare disease patients?The information required for genetic diagnosis is very diverse, such as the correlation between genes and diseases, the function of genes, important location information that
Opinion
Keum Chang-won
2022.07.27 15:53
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The ruling People Power Party (PPP) clinched a landslide victory in local elections on June 1. Although the new government started with the lowest approval ratings compared to any previous government, the local elections boosted its insufficient political power. The political season has ended. Now,
Opinion
By Lee Bo-hyoung, CEO of Macoll Consulting Group
2022.07.01 11:33
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Under the former Moon Jae-in administration, the Korean Medical Association (KMA) collided with the government on almost every health issue.Defying the government’s plan to establish a new public medical school to increase doctors at state-run hospitals, medical school students even refused to take
Opinion
By Lee Bo-hyoung, CEO of Macoll Consulting Group
2022.06.17 15:59
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I started as a software engineer by developing embedded software for digital X-ray systems in the early 1980s. It was a transitional period where a system that combined 8-bit microprocessors such as i8085 or Z80 with assembly language to a system based on C language and 16-bit processors such as i80
Opinion
By Masaaki Ohtsuka
2022.05.26 16:03
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This month is a momentous occasion, celebrating the nearly 15 years of the formalization of medical device regulations in Korea. Which is also a moment to reflect – how has the industry evolved since then, and what are the major themes to tackle ahead?APACMed, the voice of the medical device industr
Opinion
Roberta Sarno
2022.05.26 14:58
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Climate change, fine dust, the humidifier sterilizer incident that killed many Korean people, frequent industrial incidents, mounting garbage, drinking and smoking, and growing obesity and mental illness – what do they have in common?.These are the growing shadows of modern civilization’s rapid expa
Opinion
Lee Bo-hyoung, CEO of Macoll Consulting Group
2022.05.20 14:31
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On September 24, 2021, the Medical Service Act in Korea was amended to include provisions for the installation of closed-circuit televisions (CCTV) in operating rooms (ORs). According to the amended Medical Service Act, by September 25, 2023, medical institutions that operate on patients in an uncon
Opinion
Jung Yong-sik
2022.04.25 16:50
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A healthy life is a primary concern for voters. That is why every presidential candidate makes pledges on national health insurance policies. The presidential election on March 9 was no exception.Candidate Lee Jae-myung from the ruling Democratic Party promised that the government would cover the co
Opinion
By Lee Bo-hyoung, CEO of Macoll Consulting Group
2022.04.22 12:51
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“We cannot answer your question as we have to ask our global headquarters for comment and win their approval. Can you give us the question you want to ask in a document so we can ask our headquarters?”That was the response from a spokesperson for Janssen Korea, the local offshoot of Johnson & Johnso
Reporter’s Notebook
Lee Han-soo
2022.04.12 16:47
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Korea held the seventh presidential election on March 9, since the first direct presidential election in 1987. The transition of power every five years has become standard in Korean society. However, watching the latest election, voters might have been feeling complex emotions.I want to note two thi
Opinion
Lee Bo-hyoung, CEO of Macoll Consulting Group
2022.03.21 12:13
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A global blockbuster drug refers to a pharmaceutical product that sells for over $10 billion worldwide. Although Korean drug companies received FDA approval for 23 medicines between 2003 and 2021, no company could make their products become a global blockbuster drug.In 2022, four Korean pharmaceutic
Opinion
Lee Bo-hyoung, CEO of Macoll Consulting Group
2022.02.18 12:01
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The two leading presidential candidates and their camps exchanged verbal battles during the Lunar New Year holiday over foreign residents’ health insurance coverage.On Sunday, Yoon Suk-yeol, the standard-bearer of the conservative opposition People Power Party (PPP), said he would strengthen the reg
Reporter’s Notebook
Lee Han-soo
2022.02.03 17:32
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Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate from the ruling Democratic Party, recently announced that he would allow national health insurance to cover hair loss treatment, wooing young voters in their 20s and 30s suffering from thinning hair. His election pledge has been evaluated as the most popular
Opinion
By Lee Bo-hyoung, CEO of Macoll Consulting Group
2022.01.28 14:55
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Korea will hold the presidential election, the most important event in politics, in 2022. The presidential election is an important momentum that determines the major policy direction for the next five years.In the healthcare sector, the two main goals – enhancing insurance benefits for better healt
Opinion
Lee Bo-hyoung, CEO of Macoll Consulting Group
2022.01.21 16:36
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The total income of the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) reached 79 trillion won ($66.8 billion) in 2021. About 60 percent of them are spent as reimbursements to compensate for medical services. The health insurance reimbursement system has been developed according to each country’s circumst
Opinion
Lee Bo-hyoung, CEO of Macoll Consulting Group
2021.12.17 15:29
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Korea operates a national health insurance program. All Korean nationals are obligated to subscribe to it and pay insurance premiums set by the government.Under this system, insured people pay premiums differentially according to their incomes and assets, and the nation provides them with equal medi
Opinion
By Lee Bo-hyoung, CEO of Macoll Consulting Group
2021.12.07 14:48
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Director of Myongji Hospital’s Dementia Care Center and Brain BankThe government began selecting a dementia brain bank in 2016, and it picked Myongji Hospital as the nation’s fourth hospital to run a dementia brain bank in March 2021.The other three hospitals operating a government-designated dement
Opinion
Korea Biomedical Review
2021.10.11 10:05
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The Korean government will consider introducing a “preferential drug pricing system” to support innovative pharmaceutical companies.Although the system had a legal basis, the government has not introduced it because it posed a trade dispute risk. However, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said it w
Opinion
Kwak Sung-sun
2021.08.30 15:02
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The Covid-19 pandemic has been resurging since last month. As the number of confirmed cases increased sharply, the planned easing of social distancing has been shelved. Moreover, the Delta variant has become the most dominant strain in Korea (Fig. 1).However, unlike the past three viral waves, the n
Opinion
Jung Jae-hun
2021.08.17 17:35