The Public's View on the 'Bogeonsaneop': "Contributing to Health, Economy, and Jobs"

The majority of South Korean citizens evaluated that the health industry contributes to the promotion of public health and the development of the national economy. Interest in advanced regenerative medicine was also high.

[Image source=Pixabay]

The Korea Health Industry Development Institute announced the results of the "2022 Public Perception Survey on the Health Industry" conducted from November to December last year on the 3rd. This survey was conducted with a total of 1,553 people, including 1,000 general public respondents and industry and medical professionals.

First, 85.9% of respondents evaluated that the health industry in South Korea contributes to "promoting public health." It was also seen as making significant contributions to national economic development (77.3%) and job creation (59.3%). The necessity of government support for the health industry (86.7%), its future importance (85.5%), and growth potential (71.2%) also received positive evaluations.

Regarding experience with advanced healthcare technologies, the experience rates were relatively high for health management applications (57.4%) and wearable devices (37.5%), and some had experience with telemedicine (14.5%) and genetic testing (12.1%). To promote the adoption of these advanced healthcare technologies, there was a strong recognition of the need for financial support such as insurance fee application (64.7%) and funding support for technology introduction (53.1%).

Furthermore, regarding the most important health industry policies and projects, the general public responded in order of health technology research and development (44.6%), fostering the age-friendly industry (24.1%), fostering innovative pharmaceutical companies (12.1%), and fostering innovative medical devices (11.9%).

Regarding the recently spotlighted advanced regenerative medicine, 58.9% of the general public had heard of it, and 91.9% recognized its promising potential. The industry viewed the gap between South Korea and leading countries as 3 to 4 years for cell therapy and gene therapy products, and 5 to 10 years for tissue engineering products and advanced bio-convergence products.

Han Dong-gu, head of the Health Industry Innovation Planning Division at the Development Institute, said, "Based on the 2022 perception survey results, we were able to understand in detail the overall perceptions of the public, industry, and medical sectors regarding the health industry, including advanced regenerative medicine. We will strive to discover realistic policy agendas needed by the public and industry sites and reflect them in projects based on these survey results."