South Korea

South Korea has a rapidly aging population that is exerting increasing pressure on its healthcare system due to a rise in chronic diseases. In 2019, there were 295,110 deaths, over half of which were attributed to the three leading causes of death: cancer, heart disease and pneumonia. Apart from boosting its birth rate, the nation’s healthcare strategy is now focused on promoting and investing in preventive health.

In collaboration with the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, other government agencies and societies of lab medicine, we provided thousands of test kits to help execute prevalence surveys, determine vaccine efficacy, conduct screenings and perform automated molecular testing at central labs, contributing to Korea’s success and subsequent recognition as one of countries with the best COVID-19 response worldwide.

Addressing Korea’s Shadow Healthcare Crisis with Biomarker Testing 

• We appointed and developed six key opinion leaders around HCC surveillance to drive new patient guidelines involving the use of PIVKA II tests, and sought to boost the use of biomarker testing to promote earlier and more accurate diagnosis and surveillance of heart disease. 

• We also worked to improve cardiac healthcare by generating greater awareness of the value of the European Society of Cardiology 0/1-hour algorithm for rule-out and rule-in of heart attacks using, benefitting patients with quicker treatment decision-making at hospital emergency departments.

Training Pathologists to better diagnose triple negative Breast Cancer

• By conducting training sessions with healthcare professionals, we improved awareness of triple-negative breast cancer and enable pathologists to diagnose the disease more accurately, contributing to better patient outcomes

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