• 건강소식
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.42-43
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• 2010

정부는 글로벌 헬스케어를 신성장동력 산업 중 5대 고부가 서비스 분야에 포함시키는 한편, 의료관광의 활성화를 위해 외국인 환자유치를 허용하는 의료법을 개정했다. 또 의료 서비스산업 선진화 방안도 발표하는 등 오는 2013년까지 외국인 환자 20만명을 유치해 의료 서비스를 차세대 성장동력으로 키우겠다는 목표를 내세웠다. 이처럼 정부가 의료관광에 관심을 기울이는 것은 황금알을 낳을 것이라는 기대 때문이다. 세계의 의료관광 현황과 우리나라의 발전 과제를 짚어본다.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.593-602
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• 2019

The healthcare industry, a high-value-added business, continues to grow with the aging of the population and the development of convergence medical technology. In particular, the medical tourism industry is being pushed by advanced countries. Korea is also actively supporting projects to attract international patients. However, there is a lack of prior research on Korea's medical interpreter policy. This study analyzes the current status and problems of medical interpreter policy for international patients, and presents the task. Problems include insufficient policy control towers, lack of links with local governments, lack of expertise of medical interpreters, poor quality of medical interpreting services, and poor treatment of medical interpreters. As improvement measures, it is proposed to establish a policy control tower, strengthen the link with local governments, switch to a medical interpreter system, diversify the language of medical interpreting qualification test, improve the quality of medical interpreting service, internalize the training process for medical interpreter, give preferential treatment to medical interpreters, utilize the nurse, and train multicultural medical personnel. I hope that this study will contribute to the development of the medical tourism industry.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.322-333
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• 2013

This study aimed at analyzing and understanding medical tourism patients' pattern of different countries. For this purpose it followed up the international patients who visited W hospitals for spine treatment for last 3 years. In additon, it proposed key marketing strategies for attraction of more patients in the future. Satisfaction survey for 91 foreigner hospitalized patients were conducted from year 2010 to 2011. Each country of the patients showed slightly different motivations of visiting, consumer pattern and satisfaction of medical and non medical services. The current study analyzed factors, socio-demographic characteristics, purposes of visit, duration of stay in Korea, total number of visits to Korea, companions, plan of care, reasons for choice of W Hospital, expenses for medical care, total cost of staying in Korea. The results of this study showed that patients visited Korea more frequently were more satisfied with the medical care. Patients who planned to use medical care prior to visit Korea were more satisfied. Patients who thought he/she paid reasonable medical cost were more satisfied. Invitation to familiarization tour, clarification of medical cost, and provision of high quality medical care were recommended for the higher satisfaction of foreign patients. Fostering of specialized hospitals were recommended.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.107-135
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• 2016

Medical tour can be said to be a new high added-value tour industry of 21st century. The development of varied and distinguished medical tour products by each country will further vitalize the medical tour industry. As the interest in such medical tour increases, it is necessary to analyze the demand and interests of tourists accurately and prepare medical tour products to be provided in order to develop and promote medical tour products. The government considers the medical tour industry as an industry with high expected effects in job creation through promotion of experts in global healthcare industry and national economy development through high added-value creation, and has expanded aid policies in medical tour field with improvement of medical tour immigration system, one-stop service system for medical tourists, and medical tour labor force promotion system. Nevertheless, there are disputes between foreign patients and medical tour inviting businesses, along with medical accident disputes between foreign patients and medical staff and disputes with those working in the tourism industry. This article reviews the types of disputes occurring around the inviting businesses related to medical tours and tried to review the resolutions. Through this, it was found that medical tour inviting businesses have the responsibility to connect the mediated benefits and risks and also the responsibility to process the tasks. Thus, in case dispute occurs due to passive actions from establishing agency agreement to active mediation results, it is difficult to escape the liabilities. Also, in a medical tour agency contract, the inviting business must be aware that it bears the responsibility to explain and advise the details on benefits and risks to foreign patients. The "Guide to arbitration system for resolution of medical disputes with foreign patients" by Korea Health Industry Development Institute Act presents a method to resolve disputes according to the [laws on medical accident damage relief and medical dispute arbitration] in case a dispute due to medical accidents occurs to foreign patients when the foreign patients prepare diagnosis agreement, Whether such method is sufficient to protect foreign patients, however, is thought to require discussions from more diverse perspectives. In order to vitalize medical tourism, the development of diverse products is also important, but the countermeasures against related disputes should also be prepared. Such is expected to contribute to a greater advancement based on trust of foreign medical tourists alongside excellent medical technologies.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.560-568
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• 2016

In Korea, management support has been given at the government level for activities to attract foreign patients. China and Russia ranked on top of the lists for in-bound medical tourists. The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences of medical tourists in Korea, the demand for information, and the level of satisfaction regarding their experiences. 100 cases of medical tourists from China and Russia were collected through the mail survey. While Chinese used beauty, skin-care related products, Russian experienced the grocery shopping and wellness related services. Most patients from both nationalities experienced the traditional food in Korea and wanted to know about beauty products. Chinese wanted to get more information about Korean traditional food Russian. Finally, Russian showed higher overall satisfaction scores than Chinese respondents. If we reflect these results as a contents, it can be useful to attract foreign patients.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.75-80
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• 2018

Since the introduction of the Foreign Patient Assistance Law in 2009, more than 300,000 foreign patients are visiting Korea each year due to the efforts of overseas patient attraction organizations, host companies and governments. Despite these achievements, however, the company is confronted with limitations in product development and the rate of patient population growth is slowing. Therefore, this study suggests the importance and meaning of various product development through the hierarchical analysis (AHP) on the major factors of product development of medical tourism services, and suggests direction of product development in domestic medical tourism industry in the future.

• Korea Science and Art Forum
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.87-97
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• 2019

The study began in recent years with the aim of grasping the nation's medical status following the fast-growing trend of international medical tourism and attracting foreign patients, among other things, Busan, which ranks second in attracting foreign patients after the nation's capital, Seoul, has been highly active in the past eight years, with foreign patients rising by about 426 percent, and Russian patients entering the sea. In addition, Gimhae and Changwon, the Busan-based Gyeongsangnam-do region, ranked first and second in number of foreign residents, and are inhabited by a variety of foreign workers. Medical institutions, such as hospitals, should be able to find directions within hospitals. It is also a space where information in various languages, including Korean, English, Chinese, or Russian, must be delivered in a single medium. Based on this research, the purpose of this research is to provide converged information that helps foreigners who are not familiar with Korean language easily understand the proposed recognition system when visiting hospitals. Therefore, this paper is applied to a multi-language survey of six medical institutions (A, B, C, D, E, F) at the university hospital in Busan, and 10 medical institutions (R, J) in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province with high foreign residents. Research results and contents are as follows. First, the results of analyzing the design of the sinusoidal system show that the font uses colorless Gothic fonts, arrows, and pictograms to introduce the design of a typical hospital sign system. Second, the results of the multi-lingual situation were found to have only two languages in the system, such as Korean and English, and to have four languages, including Korean, English, Chinese, and Russian, according to their geographical location. However, it was judged that most medical institutions currently have only two languages (Korean, English) that may cause some discomfort in terms of language for foreign patients in non-English speaking countries. Based on these findings, it is necessary to propose designs that are considered by Koreans as well as foreign users in the use of multilingual hospital sign systems.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.577-582
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• 2021

This study was conducted to find ways to restore the domestic medical tourism industry, which was seriously hit by a sharp drop in foreign patients after the COVID-19 Pandemic. Kendall's W verification was used by asking expert panel for keyword advice by ranking. The conclusion of the study is that institutions attracting foreign patients need an opportunity to turn the crisis situation into an opportunity by expanding treatment for severe foreign patients. In addition, it is possible to gain familiarity and trust in hospitals in situations where it is difficult to visit overseas through virtual and augmented reality, and to prevent the risk of infection and protect patients in the untact era. In addition, the blockchain can maintain patient information supplementation, share it safely, minimize customer inconvenience by using payment means using virtual currency, and finally, smart healthcare can manage and provide information to patients regardless of location.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.58-70
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to examine the preparation of medical institutions for medical tourism and its effects. The sample of this study were 99 case which were selected from Korea Health Industry Development Institute list. Data were collected through the mail questionnaire survey from Sept. 15 to Oct. 30 in 2010. The collected data were analyzed using Chisquare test, t-test. The main findings of study are as follows: Using Chisquare test, we found statistically significant differences in resources prepared for medical tourism between hospitals and clinics. In general, hospitals were well prepared in human resources(e.g., proportion of employees with foreign language capability) and physical resources(e.g., helpdesk, brochures) compared to clinics.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.107-114
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• 2013

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to analyze actual status of foreign patients who visited hospital of Korean medicine and suggest developmental direction of korean medical tourism. Methods : This study includes 675 foreign patients who visited spine-specialized hospital of Korean medicine from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012. Based on computerized medical records, patients' age, gender, country, date of initial and last visit, chief complaint, treatment period and species of treatment were collected. These data were used for analyzation of actual condition of medical tourism at hospital of Korean medicine. Results : A total of 675 foreign patients visited spine-specialized hospital of Korean medicine. 395 patients(59 %) were female and the forties was the most common by ages. Patients from Japan were the most common followed by Russia and United States of America. Patients visited hospital 5.1 times during 27.4 days in average. There were 526 cases of spinal pain and only 52 cases were non-musculoskeletal disease. The most frequently performed treatment was general acupuncture treatment while moxibustion and bee venom acupuncture were remarkably infrequently treated. Conclusions : The result of this study suggests potential possibility of development of Korean medical tourism focused on disease cure as well as current trend of beauty and Korean medical experience at the Korean medical tourism field.