The Changes of Oriental Medicine and Medical Market in Korea

We investigated the changes in oriental medical market based on supply and demand of market in Korea. It is shown that the supply of western medical doctors is 6.6 times as large as that of oriental medical doctors(醫師) in 1998. The supply of western medical doctors(韓醫師) showed the greater increasing rate than that of oriental medical doctors in 1975. However, the supply of western medical doctors was almost the same as that of oriental medical doctors in the increasing rate between 1985 and 1995. Similar trends was observed in the number of hospitals and clinics. From of viewpoint of demand, the use of oriental medicine was remarkably increasing from 1990 to 1997. Oriental medical institution showed a marked increase of 48.1 % in the total medical institution showed an increase of 21.6%. These results provided a strong evidence that oriental medicine had greater increasing rate than western medicine in the supply and demand of medical market and suggest that the use of oriental medicine may play a role in the specialization of oriental medicine.

한국의료 시장의 변화와 한의학