- Severance Hospital Creates Training Manual for Foreign Medical Teams

Following an agreement signed last September between the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health, Korea will transfer its Hospital Information Technology (IT) System to Saudi Arabia, and the two nations will also develop joint training programs for medical professionals.  The agreement is unique in that it involves Government-to-Government (G2G) cooperation, marking the first time that the Korean government has exported its medical IT to another nation.  The transfer of medical technology to Saudi Arabia—which will pay 1 trillion won—is seen by Korean officials as the first step towards establishing G2G cooperation on public health throughout the Middle East. As part of the agreement, Saudi Arabia will be sending around 100 doctors every year to leading Korean hospitals for short-term training programs and fellowships, which will cost the Saudi Arabian government 3,000 USD per month for each doctor.  The five hospitals participating in the training programs are Seoul National University Hospital, Asan Medical Center, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, Samsung Medical Center, and Yonsei Severance Hospital. Severance Hospital has been charged with designing the training programs for the visiting Saudi Arabian doctors, establishing the educational content, training standards, and trainee qualifications and prerequisites for each program, along with the assessment and evaluation methods and other related guidelines.  Severance Hospital will be selling its training manual for these programs to other medical institutions and organizations, and, in the future, it is expected to be used in a variety of training programs for foreign doctors and medical teams from elsewhere in the Middle East and beyond.

- Severance Hospital Plans to Expand Cooperation with Middle Eastern Nations

Severance Hospital is working to expand its presence in the Middle East by establishing cooperative relationships with the governments of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, and other countries in the region.  Officials hope to be able to share Severance’s medical technology with these nations, while providing them with guidelines for training medical teams; at the same time, Severance intends to market itself as a top-class medical destination for residents of the region. Following the G2G agreement with Saudi Arabia, Severance is poised to play a key role in expanding public health cooperation in the Middle East, further developing medical education and training programs in the region.