Symposium on Value Based Healthcare Held on October 28 at the Grand Auditorium on the 6th Floor of AMC’s East Building

Experts from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, HIRA, and Leading Institutions Gather to Discuss the Need for and Future Direction of Value Based Healthcare

▲ Poster for Asan Medical Center’s Symposium on Value Based Healthcare

As value based healthcare emerges as a new paradigm in medicine, emphasizing not only disease treatment but also the discomfort experienced by patients and their quality of life, Asan Medical Center, a leading institution in this field, is bringing together experts from Korea and abroad for in depth discussions on the subject.

Asan Medical Center recently announced that it will host a symposium on Value Based Healthcare at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, October 28, in the Grand Auditorium on the 6th floor of its East Building.

Value Based Healthcare refers to a patient centered approach to care that goes beyond improving survival rates and clinical outcomes to encompass patients’ overall health status and how they feel in their daily lives before and after treatment.

With population aging, the growing prevalence of chronic diseases, and advances in medical technology, the volume of healthcare services provided to patients has increased rapidly. However, patients’ quality of life before and after treatment is often not fully addressed. As a result, patient centered healthcare focused on the value and quality of care has emerged as a national priority.

As a leading tertiary general hospital at the forefront of changing healthcare paradigms, Asan Medical Center organized the symposium in fulfillment of its social responsibility, with the aim of exploring the need for value based healthcare and its future direction.

The symposium will consist of two sessions. In the first session, Sang-Il Lee, Director of the Health Policy Planning Division at the National Evidence Based Healthcare Collaborating Agency, will deliver a keynote lecture on the need for value based healthcare. This will be followed by presentations by experts on four topics.

Insik Kong, Director of the Health Insurance Payment Innovation Promotion Task Force at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, will discuss efforts to establish a patient centered National Health Insurance system. Yeon Bong Lee, Director of the Evaluation Management Office at the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA), will present on reforming the Patient Experience Assessment to foster a patient centered healthcare culture. Juhee Cho, Director of the Office of Patient Outcomes and Value Innovation at Samsung Medical Center, and Associate Professor Hairil Abdullah of Singapore General Hospital will then share their respective institutions’ progress in implementing value based healthcare.

In the second session, Asan Medical Center physicians will share the hospital’s current value based healthcare initiatives and future plans. Professor Seungcheol Kang of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery and faculty lead for PROMs, will present on the introduction and achievements of Asan Medical Center’s Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) program. Professor Ki Young Son of the Department of Family Medicine and Head of the Integrated Discharge Planning Team, and Professor Ji Yeon Baek of the Division of Geriatrics and Head of the Acute Care for Elders (ACE) Team, will share the outcomes of WithONE, Asan Medical Center’s integrated care system for older patients with complex medical conditions.

Next, Professor Ju Hyun Shim of the Division of Gastroenterology and Head of the Inpatient Optimization Task Force, and Professor In-Kyung Song of the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, and Head of the Surgical Optimization Task Force, will discuss initiatives to optimize inpatient care and surgery with a focus on patient experience.

The symposium will conclude with a presentation by Professor Dong Hyun Yang of the Department of Radiology and Head of the Office for AI Innovation Support, on the application and expansion of AI in value based healthcare.

Long before value based healthcare became an established concept, Asan Medical Center had been building a systematic foundation for quality improvement rather than focusing on quantitative growth. When it opened in 1989, Asan Medical Center became the first hospital in Korea to declare its commitment to patient centered care, challenging the prevailing physician centered and hospital centered healthcare culture. Since then, it has focused on treating patients with severe and complex diseases rather than generating revenue, while continuously working to improve patient safety and the quality of care.

In 1993, Asan Medical Center became the first medical institution in Korea to establish a dedicated Performance Improvement (PI) team. The team introduced a system for reporting patient safety incidents and has continuously reviewed clinical processes. In 2012, Asan Medical Center developed its own quality management system, the Asan Global Standard (AGS), which evaluates every patient touchpoint from admission to discharge and continuously monitors the quality of healthcare services.

Through sustained PI and AGS initiatives, Asan Medical Center has achieved a high level of maturity in healthcare quality and patient safety. Building on this foundation, the hospital continues to advance its patient centered value based healthcare system, moving beyond treating diseases toward helping patients rebuild their lives.

One of the key initiatives in implementing value based healthcare is the use of Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs). PROMs systematically capture patients’ reports of their symptoms, functional status, and quality of life, enabling healthcare professionals to detect changes that might otherwise go unnoticed. This not only enhances treatment safety but also supports patient centered clinical decision-making.

In 2026, Asan Medical Center established a PROM Steering Committee and a dedicated team to expand and advance its PROM program, which had previously been implemented at a basic level in selected clinical departments. Asan Medical Center has also developed a dedicated platform for collecting and managing PROM data. Currently, 46 clinical departments actively use the collected data for clinical care and research, ensuring that patients’ voices are meaningfully reflected in treatment planning and healthcare quality improvement initiatives.

Asan Medical Center operates WithONE, the first program of its kind in Korea to provide integrated care and support for older patients with complex medical conditions throughout the entire care process, from hospitalization to post discharge follow up. The program aims to reduce hospital readmissions and gaps in post discharge care. More than 10,000 older patients have benefited from the program over the past five years, and more than 5,000 referrals have been made to social welfare services tailored to the needs of older patients.

Asan Medical Center also plans to integrate and systematize functions that have previously been distributed across multiple departments, including clinical quality indicators, patient experience, and Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs), by establishing a dedicated integrated organization.

President Seung-Il Park of Asan Medical Center said, “As a leading tertiary general hospital specializing in the treatment of severe diseases, Asan Medical Center achieved significant growth in the scale of its healthcare services. We are now at a turning point where the focus of healthcare must shift beyond treating diseases to also addressing patients’ overall well being and quality of life.”

He added, “Value based healthcare enables us to provide patients with the highest quality care in the most efficient and patient centered way, while giving healthcare professionals a sense of pride and an environment in which they can focus on their core clinical responsibilities. I hope this symposium will serve as a meaningful opportunity to explore the future direction of value based healthcare.”