Busan City Holds Performance Exchange Meeting for 'Regional Hub Innovative Physician-Scientist Joint Research Project'

Presentation of a Global Collaboration Model with Biohealth Partners and UCLA Health Participation

Participants took a commemorative photo after the Busan performance exchange meeting of the "Regional Hub Innovative Physician-Scientist Joint Research Project."

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] On the afternoon of the 30th, Busan City held the Busan Performance Exchange Meeting for the ‘Regional Hub Innovative Physician-Scientist Joint Research Project.’

The ‘Regional Hub Innovative Physician-Scientist Joint Research Project’ is a project aimed at nurturing young physician-scientists and creating a research environment infrastructure where creative ideas obtained from medical sites can be commercialized. It has been promoted over four years from 2019 to this year.

The project is being carried out at eight hospitals nationwide, and in the Southeast region, Kosin University Gospel Hospital is successfully conducting the project together with Busan City.

At the event, officials from Kosin University Hospital, representatives from the partner hospital UCLA Health, and executives and employees from nine partner companies including LG Electronics, Meju, VIVAINNOVATION, BRFrame, Seonjae Hightech, S-Cube Design Lab, Atems, U2MedTech, and InterOcean attended.

More than 20 health officials invited from 13 priority cooperation countries in Africa and Central Asia also observed the performance exchange meeting together.

At the performance exchange meeting, Dr. Arash Naeim, Director of the UCLA Health Smart Healthcare Center, gave the keynote speech, and Professor Ok Cheol-ho of Kosin University Hospital introduced the achievements of the ‘Innovative Physician-Scientist Joint Research Project.’

Following this, Dr. Jana Lim from UCLA introduced UCLA Health, and Professor Ahn Ye-chan from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Pukyong National University, who is active at UCI (University of California, Irvine) and UCLA in the United States, presented on the global technology innovation cooperation project (parathyroid diagnostic device) via video conference. Additionally, participants toured the booths of participating companies and experienced cooperative project services.

Despite the relatively short four-year project period, Kosin University Hospital exceeded targets in all categories with ▲23 SCI papers ▲12 patent applications ▲1 patent registration ▲2 technology transfers. In particular, the ‘parathyroid diagnostic medical device’ developed through this project is undergoing global clinical trials (UCLA) aiming for approval from the U.S. FDA (Food and Drug Administration), demonstrating the latent capabilities of Busan’s physician-scientists.

Moreover, by establishing a cooperative network not only with Busan companies but also with various domestic medical bio companies, they secured additional national projects such as ▲smart care service demonstration projects and ▲artificial intelligence data construction projects, expanding the scope of business and attempting to foster the biohealth industry ecosystem in Busan, which can be considered a significant achievement.

Physician-scientists and company representatives attending this performance exchange meeting unanimously stated, “The network of industry-academia-research-hospital collaboration, which linked research and development achievements to commercialization through cooperation with physician-scientists who experienced research and results through this project, will be a great foundation for the development of Busan’s biohealth industry in the future.”

Shin Chang-ho, Director of the City’s Industry and Trade Bureau, said, “We will continue to consider and strive to ensure that the achievements shared at this exchange meeting are not cut off with the conclusion of this project, and to nurture and support physician-scientists, who are important human resources for Busan’s bioindustry.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.