The size of the global medical equipment market was estimated to be $371 billion as of the end of 2015, of which the Korean market share is estimated to be about 1.7 percent, the ninth-largest in the world. It is expected that the global digital health care industry will increase by 6.8 percent per annum to $6.8 trillion by 2020.

The global medical equipment market is dominated by major companies of advanced economies, such as the US, Germany and Japan, and each of these governments is very careful in approving medical equipment, as their use is directly linked with the public health of their people.

To meet increasing demand for welfare and health care, the production and supply of personal medical equipment, instead of hospital medical equipment, have been increasing.

In the early 2000s, Sony Corp. of Japan lagged behind in the digitization of home appliances and lost the No. 1 global position to a Korean company. Meanwhile, Finnish company Nokia’s delay in the introduction of touch-style cellular phones led to its loss of the global market leadership.

Korean home appliance manufacturers, on the other hand, have nimbly adapted to changes taking place in the digital appliance market, thereby quickly strengthening their competitiveness and increasing their market shares. Similar changes could take place in the global medical equipment market.

Effective entry into the digital health care market, accompanied by appropriate medical services, first requires the transformation of medical equipment from analog to digital. In addition, biosensor and digital medical equipment needs to be integrated to allow easier collection and storage of bio-information. These will enhance availability of digital health care services that use accumulated big data for anyone who needs it, without constraints of time and proximity.

As provision of digital health care services increases, new job categories will emerge, such as bio-information analysts, big data scientists, artificial intelligence scientists and specialists in developing related health care businesses. In addition, the integration of advanced technologies -- such as bio-sensors, the Internet of Things, cloud, big data and artificial intelligence -- with other applicable industries needs to follow.

The “fourth industrial revolution” could be described as data warfare. In the 21st century, big data is the fuel and analytical technique is the engine. The key element of the fourth industrial revolution is to advance services by using IoT and big data, and it would not be surprising to see a small number of companies dominate in developing new service domains. Major global IT companies such as Google, Microsoft, Alibaba, and Tencent have been investing huge amounts of money to establish and manage data centers for storing and analyzing information about billions of users.

During the Samsung Summit in San Francisco on Oct. 11, Samsung declared that it is now a data company and announced that it would focus its efforts on developing four major business sectors: smart machines, IoT, digital health care and data infrastructure.

Klaus Schwab, the chairman of the World Economic Forum, predicted that while big fish had devoured smaller ones in the old days, in the era of the fourth industrial revolution, nimble fish would devour slower ones. While competition existed primarily within the same industry in the past, intense competition will emerge among companies in different industrial sectors. For example, Apple’s ResearchKit for telemedicine may pose a threat to the pharmaceutical industry, and Tesla’s battery and solar energy technologies would compete with petroleum companies. Therefore, unless companies anticipate and prepare for “disruptive innovation,” they are exposed to the risk of being marginalized by intra- and inter-industry competitors.

Medical equipment industries in Wonju are working to transform the electronic medical equipment manufacturing zone into a central cluster for global digital health care industries. A national industrial complex being built in the Munmak area will require the construction of a digital technology application commercialization center and a medical big data center, which would access data and information from public health institutions such as the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service in Wonju. There is a plan to establish a campus for youths for developing startup businesses in digital health care in the area around South Wonju Station.

Wonju Medical Techno-Valley strives to become a new hub for digital health care industries by creating an ecosystem that can provide individualized precision medical services based on analysis of data stored in big data. Eventually, the Techno-Valley will surely contribute to quality job creation for youths in futuristic industries while also providing better health care services to the people.


By Wahnkil Chung

Wahnkil Chung is president and CEO of Wonju Medical Industry Techno Valley. -- Ed.