Medical technology (MedTech) is a vital part of the medical field, aiding in all areas from prevention to diagnostics to treatment. The domestic
, which are an instrumental part of the medical technology industry, was valued at around 10.7 trillion South Korean won in 2023. Alongside the growing domestic market, the
has also been steadily increasing over the past decade. With the beginning of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the industry saw a rise in domestic and international demand for various medical devices.
South Korea’s medical device trade industry
South Korea’s medical device exports jumped by about 79 percent between 2019 and 2020, and has continued to increase thereafter. The majority of these exports were shipped to the Asia-Pacific and Western Europe. The country is also a major
exporter of COVID-19 test kits, with an export value of around two billion U.S. dollars in 2021 alone. With this recent surge in international medical device demand, exports have overtaken imports for the first time. The
number of medical device import companies still vastly outnumbers that of export companies, with roughly 2.7 thousand businesses active in importing medical devices into the country, compared to less than one thousand export companies.
Does telemedicine have a future in South Korea?
Another change to the South Korean medical technology industry brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic was the broader introduction of telemedicine. Telemedicine utilizes telecommunications technology to allow doctors and patients to communicate across long distances, and is often centered around diagnosis, prescriptions, and monitoring. Due to the infectious trait of the COVID-19 virus, and the often fragile condition of those seeking medical help, telemedicine became more widely available in South Korea. Around 60 percent of
doctors offering telemedicine services reported being dissatisfied with the level of care they could provide. The most common reason for this was that the service’s remote nature made it difficult to ensure patient safety. As such, the majority opposed incorporating telemedicine into the South Korean medical system.
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