OECD Reviews of Public Health: Korea
A Healthier Tomorrow
This review assesses Korea's public health system, highlights areas of strength and weakness, and makes a number of recommendations for improvement. The review examines Korea's public health system architecture, and how well policies are responding to population health challenges, including the growing burden of chronic disease, and resulting pressures on the health system. In particular, the review assesses Korea’s policies to prevent harmful alcohol use, and the risks and opportunities around public health genomics in Korea, which is both a growing field in the health sector, and a booming commercial industry. The review also examines Korea's exposure to public health emergencies, and capacity to respond to emergencies as and when they occur.
Korea’s preparedness for public health emergencies
Recent disasters and infectious diseases outbreaks have led Korea to reconsider the importance of its preparedness for public health emergencies. This chapter looks at how Korea sets-up and implements public health emergency policies and at how it builds the resilience of its health system, in accordance with the OECD Recommendation on the Governance of Critical Risks and other international guidelines. The chapter suggests that despite the usefulness of policy reforms and new capabilities, strengthening emergency preparedness in Korea remains an unfinished agenda, and more work is needed to address some key areas of weakness.
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