South Korea

Continued from Part 9: Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital

November 30, 2007

Departure from the Incheon airport was efficient. The security line was short, and they actually gave me flip flops to wear as I went through the metal director, a nice touch. (I saw shoe sterilizing machines there, too.) The airport lounge had free wireless access and my flight left on time. On the plane I sat next to a young kid and his grandmother and right behind a woman with a baby. Still, the flight wasn't bad. As I mentioned on the trip over, United is not above chiseling the coach experience. One of the flight attendants, who hadn't flown this route in a while, noted that one of the coach meal services had been replaced with a small bag of pretzels and a small cookie. "Why do they even bother?" she asked. "It's shocking!"

Continued from Part 8: Parkside Rehabilitation Hospital and Return to Seoul

November 30, 2007

I woke up around 3 am, which seems to be about my usual hour this week. Rather than trying to stay in bed and adjust to the time zone I decided to get up and do some work before the pool opened at 6. Who wants to be completely adjusted before going back anyway? It was early afternoon in the US so I was able to reach a number of people on my list. While overseas I've been using Skype to make phone calls. My MacBook's built-in microphone and speaker work fine and the price is great; even calling out to regular landlines is a few cents per minute at most.

Continued from Part 7: Good Gang-An Hospital

November 29, 2007

Of all the hospitals we visited in Korea, the Parkside Rehabilitation Hospital in Busan seems to offer the greatest opportunity for medical tourism in the near term. The 81-bed rehab facility, which also sees about 80 or 90 outpatients per day is just a year old. The center's director, Dr. Insun Park-Ko was very friendly --jovial wouldn't be too strong a description. She greeted us at the entrance to the conference room and impressed us with her vision for rehab and the design and operation of the facility. The building and equipment are very modern and cheery. I've done PT myself at a leading clinic in Boston and Parkside is at least as nice.

Continued from Part 6: Hanyang University Hospital and trip to Busan

November 29, 2007

Just like the Shilla in Seoul, the Westin in Busan has a large pool that opens by 6 am. I had a good swim there and then had breakfast overlooking the water. I noticed some objects in the water, which at first I assumed to be debris or some kind of animals. As I watched some more it turned out to be swimmers. I counted about a dozen people swimming to shore --not sure where they started from. Some were wearing wet suits, others just regular bathing suits. The air temperature was about 45 or 50 degrees Fahrenheit and I have no idea about the water temp. Before trying this swim yourself you might want to check out whether it's safe. As Stephanie Sulger wandered around town sussing out the local environment she heard from an expat that there were some issues with pollution.

Our first stop in Busan was the Good Gang-An Hospital, a 400 bed general hospital that's less than three years old. They handle more or less everything, but vascular surgery seems to be an area of particular strength. Good Gang-An is part of a six hospital group, and we were told by the head of the International Medical Center, Woo Young Seo, MD, PhD that the hospitals are doing well economically despite a generally poor outlook for hospitals in the region. The building is very nice and has a sweeping view of Busan, including a new 7.4 km bridge, which we were told is the longest in Korea.

Continued from Part 5: Ajou University Hospital

November 28, 2007

We spent about 3 hours at most of the hospitals we visited, but had time for only a relatively brief visit to Hanyang University Medical Center. We started off in the Health Promotion Center, which offers comprehensive, low-cost checkups. They do a fairly brisk business with Korean Americans and expats. There's no mechanism right now to bring in foreign visitors but they are considering establishing one. The hospital has an arrangement with the Intercontinental Hotel, which is about 15 minutes away by taxi and contains a large shopping mall. Mr. Daihee Kim is the coordinator for foreign patients.

The hospital does a good volume of orthopedic surgeries, including knee and hip replacements. Although they do a lot of stomach surgery (because of the prevalence of gastric cancer) there hasn't been demand for bariatric surgery. Koreans just aren't obese enough to need it.