Medical Innovation Committee Launches Online Platform "Public Communication Square" to Gather Public Opinions

The 4th Meeting of the Medical Innovation Committee Held

The Medical Innovation Committee has launched an online platform to continuously collect public opinions and has begun full-scale discussions with the aim of announcing the "Medical Innovation Strategy" (tentative name) within this year.

Jung Ki-hyun, Chair of the Medical Innovation Committee (second from right), is speaking at the 4th Medical Innovation Committee meeting held on the 26th at the Koreana Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. Second from left is Jung Eun-kyung, Minister of Health and Welfare. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

On March 26, the committee held its 4th meeting at the Koreana Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, presided over by Chairman Jung Ki-hyun. During the meeting, the committee discussed the following: the opening and operation plan of the Public Communication Square for Medical Innovation (Healthcare for All); the detailed operational plan of the committee; and a draft strategy (tentative name) to strengthen regional, essential, and public healthcare.

The committee established the online platform, "Public Communication Square for Medical Innovation" (hereinafter referred to as the "Public Communication Square"), to ensure the credibility and transparency of the discussions by making the process and outcomes public and to collect public opinions on the topics under discussion. The platform has been in operation since March 24.

The committee plans to transparently release information about its activities and updates, including agenda items and meeting outcomes discussed by the committee, through the Public Communication Square. In addition, the committee will accept public opinions on topics currently under discussion and also support the submission of proposals from the public on topics outside the committee's current agenda at any time. Public opinions submitted through the Public Communication Square that are related to the committee's topics will be reviewed during official discussions. Major proposals on other topics will also be subject to additional review by the committee's secretariat. These matters will be disclosed quarterly and are expected to be included in the upcoming "Medical Innovation Strategy."

Furthermore, once the public deliberation phase begins in earnest, the committee plans to facilitate active deliberative processes through the Public Communication Square, including providing e-learning opportunities for citizen panels, online deliberations, and Q&A sessions between citizen panels and experts. The committee will intensify promotional activities via social networking services (SNS) and diversify access routes by providing links and QR codes to encourage public participation through the Public Communication Square.

At its previous 3rd meeting, the committee selected 10 agenda items across three major areas for future discussion and finalized the appointment of members to the expert committee through additional written approval. During this meeting, the committee agreed to continue regular monthly discussions (on the last Thursday of every month) with the goal of announcing the "Medical Innovation Strategy" within this year. For in-depth discussion, each agenda item will undergo at least two to three rounds of review by the expert committee before being submitted to the main committee. In addition, to strengthen the connection between the expert committee and the main committee, expert committee chairpersons will be allowed to attend the main committee meetings even if they are not committee members. A governance task force will be established under the direct supervision of the committee chairman to strengthen the linkage between discussions of each expert committee and to facilitate integrated discussions on governance-related topics.

Meanwhile, the expert committee began full-scale operations last week with its first meeting. During this meeting, members discussed the main topics and schedules for each expert committee. The expert committees will continue to meet biweekly each month to discuss topics related to the 10 major tasks of the Innovation Committee. In addition, the committee collected public opinions on the draft strategy to strengthen regional, essential, and public healthcare. The government plans to announce the results as soon as possible based on these discussions.

Jung Ki-hyun, Chairman of the Medical Innovation Committee, stated, "The Public Communication Square for Medical Innovation should not remain a one-time channel for collecting opinions. We will do our utmost to ensure that the policy proposals we receive lead to tangible medical innovations that address the real inconveniences experienced by the public."

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