Samjong KPMG: Korea Needs Growth Strategies Through Digital Health-Specialized Hospitals

"Status Check for Responding to the Major Transition in K-Digital Healthcare"
Report Published

As projections indicate that by 2029, about half of the global population will be using digital healthcare services, there are growing calls to develop growth strategies for Korea's digital healthcare industry.

On January 29, Samjong KPMG, in collaboration with the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), published a report titled "Status Check for Responding to the Major Transition in K-Digital Healthcare." The report diagnosed that the healthcare industry has reached a structural inflection point where not only the pace but also the direction of change is shifting simultaneously, rather than remaining at a stage of gradual improvement to existing systems.

The report analyzed that, based on digital technology and data utilization, the focus of healthcare is rapidly shifting from "post-treatment response" to "prevention and continuous management."

According to the report, while the Korean market is maintaining its growth trajectory, both its growth rate and market size remain limited compared to the global market. The report pointed out that, for the Korean market to reach global standards, a strategic shift away from existing growth models and the securing of new growth drivers are necessary.

An analysis of 1,942 domestic digital healthcare solutions by the two organizations revealed that more than half of all solutions are concentrated in the analysis and diagnosis (29.0%) and informatization (28.9%) sectors. The report explained that this focus on clinical-centered, single vital sign-based data utilization limits the scalability of services and the creation of high added value.

There are 324 health management solutions, accounting for 16.7% of the total, forming a certain level of market. However, about 70% of these are limited to the collection and monitoring of basic vital signs such as heart rate, activity, and sleep, and the linkage between prevention and diagnosis is insufficient.

The prediction and prevention sector accounts for only 4.0% (78 solutions) of the total, with 60.5% of these focused on chronic diseases, which restricts expansion into integrated prevention models for acute or multiple diseases. In the analysis and diagnosis sector, 77.7% of solutions are based on medical imaging, meaning that multidimensional diagnostic applications that combine non-imaging vital signs, tests, and behavioral data remain limited.

The treatment and rehabilitation sector was counted at 259 solutions (13.3%), with about 33% focused on mental illnesses, indicating a relative lack of expansion into physical rehabilitation or remote treatment areas. Prognosis management solutions accounted for only 19, or 1.0% of the total, showing that a continuous management system linking post-monitoring long-term care, relapse prevention, and lifestyle management has not yet been sufficiently established.

The report assessed that, overall, the domestic digital healthcare industry remains focused on system construction and individual solutions, and that the integration of the patient journey through data utilization and inter-service connectivity is still in its early stages. Accordingly, the report emphasized the need to seek a strategic investment shift toward data- and service-centered models and to explore differentiated growth paths from a mid- to long-term perspective.

As a policy alternative to overcome these limitations, the introduction of "digital health-specialized hospitals" was proposed. These hospitals could function as demonstration and learning spaces where new technologies and services are actually applied and validated in clinical settings. This is expected to accelerate the field application of digital healthcare solutions and strengthen the industry's overall growth drivers. If the services and operational structures validated in model hospitals are expanded to areas with low medical accessibility, this could also help reduce regional disparities in healthcare access.

Kyungsoo Park, Managing Director in charge of the healthcare industry at Samjong KPMG, stated, "The competitiveness of Korea's digital healthcare industry does not lie in individual technologies or single solutions, but in whether it can actually realize a continuous healthcare structure encompassing prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management. Now is the time to move beyond technology adoption and pursue a structural transformation that spans clinical settings and the entire industrial ecosystem," he added.

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