Chronic diseases account for 80% of all deaths
A paradigm shift in healthcare from treatment to prevention and management
Disease can be prevented with ICT, but related laws are lacking.

Our country's 'National Health Insurance' is a system that would be the envy of any country in the world.

In the United States, nearly two years after President Barack Obama left office, the nation is still grappling with the pain of health care reform. The brunt of the sharp health insurance conflict is being borne entirely by patients.
Even today, American patients pay exorbitant amounts of money for even a single cold. This is unimaginable in South Korea, where all citizens are required to enroll in national health insurance from birth. Thanks to national health insurance, South Korea's average life expectancy surpassed that of the United States in 2006.


Limitations of National Health Insurance
Of course, it's not all about benefits. The shortcomings of the existing National Health Insurance, such as unfair premium calculations, stemmed from institutional issues. More recently, these issues have arisen from contemporary issues. The aging population is rapidly increasing the financial burden. Starting this year, the National Health Insurance Service is expected to post a deficit, and the accumulated surplus is expected to be depleted within five years.

Therefore, an increase in insurance premiums is inevitable. Next year, the premium will increase by 3.5%. The burden-to-income ratio is also expected to rise from the current 6% to over 8%. The National Health Insurance, which was launched to ease the burden of medical expenses on citizens, is increasingly deviating from its original purpose.

The bigger problem is that money is being spent but there is no effect.
According to the "2018 Chronic Disease Status and Issues" report published by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the mortality rate from heart disease has steadily increased over the past decade. The prevalence of hypertension increased from 24.5% in 2007 to 29.1% in 2016, and the prevalence of hypercholesterolemia increased from 10.7% in 2007 to 19.9% in 2016. Cardiovascular diseases are among the most common chronic diseases.


Increased mortality from non-communicable diseases
Chronic diseases are also called non-communicable diseases. One of the characteristics of non-communicable diseases is that they develop only after exposure to risk factors and over a long period of time.

Each year, approximately 40 million people, accounting for 70% of all deaths worldwide, die from non-communicable diseases, and this proportion continues to increase. In Korea, deaths due to non-communicable diseases account for 80.8%.

The reason why the proportion of deaths due to non-communicable diseases is high in our country is due to the aging population and increased opportunities for exposure to various risk factors. In particular, the burden of chronic diseases is increasing due to exposure to risk factors such as smoking, obesity, eating habits, and lack of exercise.

Therefore, effective measures against non-communicable diseases are necessary to reduce the national financial burden and household burden while improving various health indicators.


Prevention and management are more important than treatment.
In response to the rise in non-communicable diseases, the WHO proposed nine goals in 2012 to prevent and control them. Reducing lifestyle-related risk factors is a key focus. This includes avoiding excessive drinking and smoking, getting moderate exercise, and consuming less salt.
It is aimed more at management and prevention than at treatment.

On the 18th, at the seminar titled “Strengthening the Competitiveness of the Smart Healthcare Industry” hosted by the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI) at the Topaz Room on the 2nd floor of the Federation of Korean Industries Conference Center, Professor Hong Seok-cheol of the Department of Economics at Seoul National University, who was a presenter, said, “As the aging population deepens, national medical expenses and financial burden are rapidly increasing,” and “The fundamental solution is to improve the efficiency of healthcare.”

He also emphasized that convergence with ICT technology, namely smart healthcare, is important in order to innovatively improve the efficiency of medical and healthcare in the future.


The current state of domestic smart healthcare
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is a convergence of industries based on ICT. Smart healthcare is a field that best embodies this revolution. The IT industry is already developing various types of wearable products, including smartwatches, smartbands, glasses, scarves, pants, and shoes, in response to shifts in personal lifestyles and changing health awareness due to aging and obesity.

Through this, it is possible to measure physical conditions such as body temperature, heart rate, and muscle movement, and through the motion sensor, it is also possible to measure various movements in daily life. It is to monitor information processed from wearable devices through displays such as smartphones or PC monitors.

Market research firm Gartner forecasts that wearable device sales will reach $61.7 billion in 2020, with the healthcare-related wearable market accounting for more than 20% of the total, at $13.7 billion.

However, policy support is insufficient to match the interest. Major countries around the world are competing to improve their systems and revitalize the smart healthcare industry. Some foreign companies are expanding beyond health care to include disease management.

However, as of 2015, the size of the global healthcare market was 79 billion dollars, while the domestic market only reached 3 billion dollars.
While there's ample potential for ICT in smart healthcare, domestic companies are hesitant to jump into the fray. The most direct reason is that the current medical law doesn't allow for the convergence of doctors, ICT engineers, and healthcare providers that is necessary. They want to quickly jump into the smart healthcare market to secure a lead, but it is unclear where they will be held back.


To activate the smart healthcare industry
Professor Hong Seok-cheol said, “The shift from treatment to prevention and management is a global medical paradigm shift,” and added, “While treatment effects appear immediately, prevention and management effects do not, so health and medical policies must be established from a long-term perspective.”

The core of the Moon Jae-in administration's health care policy is "reducing the economic burden." This is a thoroughly economic approach. However, if we attempt to solve this problem solely through economic means, we will fail to achieve both a reduction in the economic burden and an improvement in health indicators.

In keeping with the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we must collect and analyze health information and life logs using big data and wearable devices to provide optimal services to the public. And this begins with resolving various regulatory issues related to the Medical Act.

Now, if we cannot utilize ICT resources, we cannot move forward.