Vice Minister Lee Hyun-hoon of Health and Welfare Discusses Strengthening Healthcare Cooperation with Saudi Arabia and Qatar

Joint Steering Committee on Healthcare Cooperation Held and Agreement Signed
Discussions on Expanding K-Medical Technologies, Including AI and Digital Healthcare

Lee Hyun-hoon, Second Vice Minister of Health and Welfare, visited Saudi Arabia and Qatar to discuss ways to expand cooperation in the healthcare sector.

Lee Hyun-hoon, Second Vice Minister of Health and Welfare, is having a bilateral meeting with Abdulaziz Hamad Almuhe, Deputy Minister of Health of Saudi Arabia, on the 3rd. Ministry of Health and Welfare

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Vice Minister Lee visited the local Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia from November 2 to 3 to discuss cooperation in digital healthcare and the expansion of training opportunities in Korea for local medical professionals.

First, he held a bilateral meeting with Inas Al-Eisa, Vice Minister of Education of Saudi Arabia, to discuss measures to strengthen human resource capabilities, such as expanding training programs in Korea for Saudi medical professionals. The two sides agreed to further develop and formalize their cooperation by signing a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) as soon as possible. As of last month, there were a total of 594 trainees from four Middle Eastern countries-Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman-who had participated in training programs in Korea, with Saudi trainees accounting for the majority at 555. The two countries plan to expand the scope of trainees from physicians and dentists to include nurses, pharmacists, and medical technicians, and to enhance cooperation through online training programs as well.

Vice Minister Lee also met with Abdulaziz Hamad Almuheiri, Deputy Minister of Health of Saudi Arabia, to discuss hospital information systems, smart hospitals, and robotic surgery, and agreed to revise the bilateral healthcare cooperation MOU originally signed in 2016. Since 2012, Korea has been exporting Korean-style hospital information systems to help establish digital healthcare systems in Saudi Arabia.

On November 4, Vice Minister Lee held the first Joint Steering Committee meeting in Doha, Qatar, with Ghanim Ali Al-Maadeed, Assistant Deputy Minister of Health of Qatar. They agreed to expand the treatment of Qatari government-sponsored patients in Korea, strengthen cooperation for training Qatari medical professionals in Korea, increase opportunities for Korean medical professionals to work in Qatar, and collaborate on advanced technologies. Last year, Qatar sent a total of 78 patients abroad, with government support, to receive treatment in Korea for conditions that could not be treated domestically. Building on this meeting, the two countries agreed to increase the number of patients sent to Korea and to pursue patient allocation (PA) contracts with Korean medical institutions.

Vice Minister Lee also established a new framework for paid training programs in Korea for Qatari medical professionals and included as cooperation tasks the upgrading of license levels for Korean medical professionals in Qatar and the simplification of document submission processes to facilitate their entry into the Qatari healthcare market.

Vice Minister Lee stated, "Saudi Arabia and Qatar are key strategic countries for the expansion of K-Medical into the Middle East," adding, "We will continue to make healthcare cooperation with Middle Eastern countries more substantive and widespread in the future."

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