F045 Digital Health in Asia 5/5: Telemedicine is illegal in South Korea (Ogan Gurel)

South Korea is famous for many things - worldwide, the Republic of Korea has by far the highest robot density in the manufacturing industry, the third-largest market for virtual currency, behind the United States and Japan. South Korea is called the plastic surgery capital, because of the cultural beauty obsession. According to a recent Gallup poll, one in three South Korean women has undergone cosmetic surgery between the ages of 19 and 29. South Korea’s government is even trying to limit the stars’ presence. South Korea also managed to pull off what many other countries crave for: a substantial healthcare reform in early 2000s. Health care is financed through National Health Insurance covering the entire population. To establish big data in the medical field, the nation is currently gathering the medical records of about 50 million people from 39 hospitals nationwide by 2020. Alongside all the technological progress, telemedicine is illegal in South Korea. You will hear why from today’s speaker Ogan Gurel, a doctor, professor, entrepreneur, who has been living in South Korea for the last nine years. His teaching experience includes cellular & molecular biology, neuroanatomy, bioinformatics, mathematical modeling, and technology marketing at Columbia, Roosevelt, Harvard, SAIHST and DGIST. He has also served as an independent consultant to several medical device firms in which he was specifically involved with both European and FDA clinical trial development and oversight. Enjoy the discussion, and research more at www.facesofdigitalhealth.com  Blog post with key points from all episodes about Asia: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f041045-digital-health-in-asia-china-india-south-korea-and-singapore