03-Feb-17 The Korean government will invest KRW315.7 bn (USD276 mn) to secure original technologies for bio sectors such as new drugs, medical devices, future medical care, genomics and brain science in 2017. This includes KRW263 bn for bio-medical technology development projects. This year's budget is 31% more than last year’s. [image: Business Korea]

20-Jan-17 Private jet company L’Voyage is seeing growing interest in overseas medical and wellness trips from China. The ultra-rich prefer to fly by private jet and are increasingly choosing Europe and the US for treatments, drugs and technologies not available in China. Global Growth Markets estimates that 4,300 ultra-rich Chinese sought treatments overseas in 2015. [image: International Medical Travel Journal]

12-Jan-17 Samsung Electronics will develop 'wearable healthcare devices' as its new business for the future instead of the robots that LG and other rivals are paying attention to. "The roles of home robots recently introduced by home appliance companies can be realized by adding artificial intelligence to existing devices such as smartphones, TVs and IoT refrigerators,” said a representative. [image: Business Korea]

11-Jan-17 In 2016 only three mHealth apps obtained medical device authorization in Korea - and one of them was the National Health Insurance Service’s. In contrast, the USFDA authorized 36 digital healthcare devices in 2016. Regulations on cloud services and time-consuming approval of innovative devices are also hindering the growth of the Korean smart healthcare industry. [image: Business Korea]

30-Dec-16 According to China’s leading online travel marketplace, Ctrip, Chinese medical tourism grew to reach 500,000 outbound trips in 2016, and Ctrip's medical tourism business grew by 500%, having been launched in Sep 2015. Health checks made up over 50% of Chinese medical tourism trips in 2016. Among Ctrip’s customers, Japan was the most popular destination followed by Korea. [image: Shutterstock / Jing Daily]