Mobile Healthcare Solution
KT, South Korea’s second-largest telecom company, announced on September 8 that it has formed a consortium with Pusan National University Hospital and Busan Techno Park and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with four Kazakhstani organizations, including Al-Farabi National University, West Kazakhstan State Medical University and the State Department of Public Health of Aktobe, to carry out a digital healthcare demonstration project.
The project is designed to improve the medical care environment in Kazakhstan with an information communication technology (ICT)-intensive mobile healthcare diagnosis solution and Korea’s medical assistance. Kazakhstan's infant mortality stood at 21.6 percent per every 1,000 live-born children, far higher than the OECD average of 4.1 percent. Its life expectancy reaches 70.3 years, far below than the OECD average of 80.5 years.
In addition, Kazakhstan is 27 times larger in area than South Korea but it has only 1,054 hospitals and 120,000 hospital beds. About 40 percent of the country's population live in rural areas while 80 percent of medical service providers live in large cities. This is why it shows a serious imbalance of medical care between regions.
Accordingly, a consortium led by KT plans to enhance the poor medical treatment environment by aggressively introducing telemedicine. It will install a mobile health diagnosis solution, which can diagnose widespread diseases in the nation, such as cardiovascular diseases and respiratory disease, with a small amount of blood and urine, in Al-Farabi National University in Almaty of the eastern part and Aktobe State Hospital in the western part on a trial basis.
Health information measured with the solution will be transferred to the health information center in Al-Farabi National University and be systematically managed with assistance from doctors of Pusan National University Hospital and Kazakhstani doctors who are to be offered training programs at Pusan National University Hospital.