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| Professor Hong Yun-chul from Seoul National University speaks during the Korea Forum 2020 in Seoul, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Hong In-ki |
By Kim Se-jeong
Professor Hong Yun-chul from Seoul National University's medical school said a new infectious disease will attack humanity again soon and Korea should fight that epidemic by developing a system in which individuals can monitor their health at home.
Speaking at the Korea Forum organized by The Korea Times and the Hankook Ilbo, Hong Yun-chul said, "Technologies are already available as shown in a smart watch or smart glasses. Also, you can make your toilet much smarter. Human waste holds critical health information but we discard it all. If we can install a system in our toilet that can analyze the waste, we can detect illness early on and take action. This is very possible."
Specialized in preventive medicine, Hong is the author of two books, "The Origin of Disease" (2014) and "The Changing Era of Disease" (2019).
The expert said the current medical system where patients shop for hospitals and doctors should be changed.
"For example, a person with diabetes looks for a good doctor and seeks treatment. If the same patient has a heart problem, he again searches for a doctor himself. This makes people flock to big medical centers. This has to be changed. The center of healthcare must be your home and clinics in your neighborhoods, not big hospitals which know nothing about you but have part of your health information."
Hospital shopping has been mentioned as a downside of the Korean medical system, especially during the MERS outbreak in 2014.
His comments came as the world is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic. Across the world the number of cases hovers just below 5.6 million with at least 347,000 deaths, as of Tuesday afternoon.
Explaining the history of infectious diseases and how societies handled them, Hong said the most important prevention is increasing person hygiene, not vaccines and treatment. "History tells this and we need to learn from history," Hong said.
He also had a point to make about so-called "K-quarantine," which has been heralded recently among policymakers as a new export strategy for Korea.
"Selling many COVID-19 test kits isn't K-quarantine. This will not last very long. Neither is developing vaccines and treatments. There are many companies that are much more advanced than Korean companies. What Korea is strong in is a medical system where the private and public medical sectors are in harmony. And that proved successful in the COVID-19 pandemic. If we can develop this to a system gradually, this will be true K-quarantine."
After a peak in the number of cases starting in February, Korea's COVID-19 cases have been under control. Experts attributed the success to fast virus testing and aggressively tracing potential patients' whereabouts, with the result that many countries are reaching out to Korea to learn from its experience.
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