Seoul National University Hospital laid out a blueprint to accelerate a transition to a future medical system by putting forward two pillars: completion of essential care and intelligent consolidation care.
With Korea entering a super-aged society and the crisis in regional and essential care deepening, the hospital said it will strengthen its role as the last line of defense in national health care and as a policy think tank.
On the afternoon of the 15th, Seoul National University Hospital held a press conference for the inauguration of 20th President Baek Nam-jong and unveiled the hospital's future direction and mid- to long-term vision.
Baek said, "We will safeguard the last bastion of public health and fulfill our role as a think tank leading Korea's medical standards and national policy," adding, "We will leap forward as a world-class hospital that sets the benchmark for future medicine."
As operating principles to achieve this, Baek presented five pillars: national responsibility in health care, future innovation, academic integration, governance innovation, and organizational culture. Based on this, the strategy is to simultaneously close gaps in essential care and secure competitiveness in future medicine.
The core goal is the completion of national essential care.
The hospital plans to build a nationwide "One-Hospital" win-win governance system that links regional, essential, and public care centered on Seoul National University Hospital. Baek emphasized that the hospital will take the lead in shaping an essential-care environment by concentrating capabilities on treating high-difficulty critical and rare diseases.
The other pillar is intelligent consolidation care (Connected Care). The hospital will build a continuous medical and care system that extends beyond in-hospital treatment to daily life after discharge and will gradually introduce a Digital Hospital at Home model. Alongside this, it will run the in-hospital medical AI platform SNUH.AI and reorganize hospital spatial structures based on data to improve efficiency.
An ecosystem strategy to secure competitiveness in future medicine was also presented.
The plan is to establish a convergent research and care system that connects Seoul National University (basic research), Seoul National University Hospital (clinical), Bundang Seoul National University Hospital (Digital Healthcare), and Seoul National University Siheung Campus Baegot (advanced smart rehabilitation), and to expand training for physician-scientists (MD-PhD) to strengthen convergence research between medicine and engineering. The technologies secured through this will be linked to solving challenges in public health care and developed into a K-medicine export model.
Organizational innovation and cultural change were also cited as key tasks. The hospital will strengthen data-based performance management and a transparent management system, and will push a transition to a "value-centered community" by spreading a horizontal organizational culture and ESG management.
Hospital-specific specialization strategies were also detailed.
Seoul National University Children's Hospital will pursue remodeling to raise the share of rooms with four beds or fewer to 93%, and Bundang Seoul National University Hospital will expand its research, education, and care infrastructure by building a specialized infectious disease hospital for the Seoul metropolitan area and expanding the Ji Seok-yeong Biomedical Research Institute.
SNUH SMG-SNU Boramae Medical Center will establish a "安心 respiratory specialty center" for critically vulnerable groups, and Seoul National University Gangnam Center will transition into an AI-based preventive medicine hub.
The National Traffic Rehabilitation Hospital and the National Fire Service Hospital will each strengthen their roles as hubs specialized in trauma rehabilitation and in disaster and trauma, respectively.
The Gijang Heavy Ion Therapy Center aims to open in the second half of 2027 by introducing the nation's first carbon- and helium-based multi-ion therapy system, and Baegot Seoul National University Hospital is pushing to open in 2029 as an 800-bed advanced smart hospital.
Baek emphasized, "We will complete national essential care and lead the future with intelligent consolidation care," adding, "We will do our best to turn crisis into opportunity and solve national health care challenges."