Over the Past Ten Years, Asan Medical Center Has Treated Thirty-Five Thousand Patients from the Middle East and Trained Six Hundred Medical Scholars from the Region — Showcasing the Excellence of Korean Healthcare

Asan GI Hospital-UAE in 2026 and Medical Consulting for KMC in Qatar — Sharing Advanced Medical Expertise

President Seung-Il Park of Asan Medical Center Says “We Will Strengthen Our Status as a Global Hospital by Sharing Advanced Medical Technologies and Systems”

▲(From left) Professor Dae Wook Hwang of the Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery at Asan Medical Center teaches pancreatic resection techniques to Dr. Mohammed Alotaibi from Saudi Arabia.

“I am a specialist in hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery from Saudi Arabia, and I have been training at Asan Medical Center since January of last year. I am currently learning highly complex procedures such as liver transplantation using small grafts, robotic surgery for pancreatic and liver cancer, and portal vein and superior mesenteric vein resection for advanced pancreatic cancer. With the experience I have gained at Asan Medical Center, which has some of the world’s most advanced medical capabilities, I hope to take the lead in introducing robotic surgery for hepatobiliary and pancreatic diseases and expanding living donor liver transplantation when I return to Saudi Arabia.”

- Dr. Mohammed Alotaibi from Saudi Arabia

Asan Medical Center recently announced that over the past ten years it has treated thirty-five thousand severely ill patients from the Middle East and has provided advanced medical training to six hundred medical scholars from the region.

Asan Medical Center has been playing a key role in advancing healthcare in Middle Eastern GCC countries by delivering the excellence of Korean “K Medical” through the treatment of critically ill patients, the training of medical professionals, and the introduction of advanced medical systems.
※ GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council in the Middle East): A regional cooperative body consisting of six countries—Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain.

Since 2014, Asan Medical Center has signed training agreements with the governments of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, and other countries in the Middle East, maintaining active exchanges with the region.

As a result, from 2015 through the present (as of September this year), approximately six hundred medical scholars from the Middle East have visited Asan Medical Center to learn advanced medical techniques, including 478 from Saudi Arabia, 50 from Oman, 31 from Kuwait, 30 from the United Arab Emirates, 8 from Qatar, and 2 from Bahrain.

Medical scholars from the Middle East have received training in highly complex and specialized treatments that are difficult to experience in their home countries, including organ transplantation such as liver and kidney transplantation, microsurgical reconstruction, robotic surgery for pancreatic and liver cancer, and fetoscopic therapy.

In particular, Asan Medical Center has strengthened its global education network by signing a student training agreement in 2014 with King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, which is regarded as the most prestigious university in the Middle East.

Before overseas training programs were suspended due to COVID 19, more than one hundred fifty medical students from King Saud University completed training at Asan Medical Center. Beginning next year, the program will resume, and around thirty students will visit Asan Medical Center annually to observe clinical care and surgery and experience its advanced medical systems and educational programs.

▲On November 19, at the Angiography Suite of Asan Medical Center in Seoul, Medical staff from Asan Medical Center provide training to Saudi Arabian medical scholars on treatment strategies for cerebral aneurysms as seen on cerebral angiography images.

(From left) Professors Deok Hee Lee and Choong Gon Choi of the Department of Radiology at Asan Medical Center, and Saudi Arabian specialists Ahmed Albaqshi, Muhannad Alanazi, Ali Kamli, Abdullah Alhindi. 

In addition, medical professionals from Asan Medical Center have been actively visiting countries in the Middle East to share the latest surgical techniques and expertise with local healthcare providers.

Endowed-Chair Professor Sung-Gyu Lee of the Division of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery at Asan Medical Center performed Qatar’s first adult living donor liver transplantation in 2016, passing on liver transplantation techniques to local medical staff. In 2023, Professors Ki-Wook Chung and Tae-Yon Sung from the Division of Endocrine Surgery at Asan Medical Center demonstrated advanced procedures in Kuwait, including laparoscopic retroperitoneal adrenalectomy and transaxillary laparoscopic thyroidectomy.

In this way, Asan Medical Center is not only training medical professionals in the Middle East with world class medical expertise but also treating critically ill patients who cannot receive adequate care locally. By introducing patient centered advanced medical systems, Asan Medical Center continues to contribute to elevating the overall standard of healthcare in the region.

In January of last year, Asan Medical Center signed a cooperation agreement with Emirates Health Services (EHS), one of the government agencies responsible for health care in the United Arab Emirates, further strengthening its ongoing clinical collaboration with countries in the Middle East.

Based on these cooperative relationships, more than thirty-five thousand patients from the Middle East have been treated at Asan Medical Center over the past ten years, including 22,445 from the United Arab Emirates, 9,440 from Saudi Arabia, 1,551 from Kuwait, 889 from Qatar, 739 from Oman, and 81 from Bahrain. In particular, patients with severe and complex conditions requiring advanced procedures, such as cancer, cardiac diseases, and organ transplantation, have come to Asan Medical Center for treatment that is difficult to receive locally.

Asan Medical Center will also export its high quality medical system by establishing the first integrated gastroenterology specialty hospital among GCC countries in the United Arab Emirates. Asan GI Hospital-UAE (tentative name), which began construction last July and is scheduled to open in 2026, is expected to improve the quality of life for patients in the United Arab Emirates who previously had to travel abroad for advanced treatment such as gastric and colorectal cancer care, liver transplant management, and bariatric surgery.

Asan Medical Center is also providing medical consulting services to KMC (Korean Medical Center), operated by APEX Health in Qatar. Following the first agreement signed in May 2022, Asan Medical Center entered into a second consulting agreement in July 2023. Through this partnership, Asan Medical Center offers medical consultation for KMC’s health screening center, spine and joint center, and fertility center, as well as local patient referrals and visiting medical services, directly contributing to enhancing the quality of KMC’s healthcare services.

In this way, Asan Medical Center has established itself as a global hospital that leads the treatment of severe diseases and serves as a last hope for patients not only in Korea but also around the world. In Newsweek’s “World’s Best Hospitals 2025” ranking, Asan Medical Center was ranked twenty fifth globally, the highest among Korean hospitals. In the “World’s Best Specialized Hospitals 2026” evaluation, six clinical specialties—cancer, gastroenterology, endocrinology, neurology, urology, and orthopedics—were ranked within the global top ten.

President Seung-Il Park of Asan Medical Center said “Asan Medical Center is dedicated to advancing global healthcare by treating critically ill international patients who cannot receive adequate care in their home countries and by sharing our expertise through medical training programs.” He added, “We will continue to expand the reach of our advanced medical technologies and systems to the Middle East and other regions around the world, further strengthening our standing as a global hospital.”