UAE buys Korean medical tech

Seoul National University Bundang Hospital on Thursday signed a $5 million contract to export its software system to the United Arab Emirates.

Hospital information systems are designed to manage all aspects of a hospital’s operation, including medical, administrative, financial and legal records.

The consortium’s digital storing and data processing for patients’ records and administrative processes has been popular with users and was successfully installed in six hospitals in Saudi Arabia in 2014.

A consortium of Seoul National University’s hospital, SK Telecom and ezCaretech, in partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of National Guard, will begin exporting the system to the Clemenceau Medical Center at Dubai Healthcare City in the United Arab Emirates starting in October.

The medical center plans to install the system, called BESTCare2.0A, next February in time for the opening of its new hospital in Dubai.

Dubai Healthcare City is part of the government’s vision to turn the city into a global medical tourism hub. DHCC is the largest healthcare free trade zone in the world, and allows medical services to be provided at lower costs due to low or zero taxation.

The contract with Clemenceau, an affiliate of Johns Hopkins Medicine International, is significant for the Korean consortium. Clemenceau is headquartered in Beirut, Lebanon, and the venture is a chance for the consortium to enter Lebanon, which has significant investment opportunities in the IT and healthcare sector, according to the International Trade Administration.

Clemenceau Medical Center in Lebanon is recognized as one of the top 10 hospitals globally for medical tourism by the independent international organization Medical Travel Quality Alliance. The medical company is currently seeking to expand further in the Middle East.

The Clemenceau center in Dubai will be the free-trade zone’s third general hospital and is expected to have about 110 hospital beds. It will provide robotic surgery and a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services next year.

The Korean consortium has also exported its information system to the United States.

After signing a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia and the UAE on exporting its hospital information technology in 2014, the consortium won a contract worth more than 70 billion won ($66 million) to provide its technology to six hospitals in Saudi Arabia.

The deal came a year after Seoul National University Bundang Hospital’s system was chosen as the world’s best hospital information system by an American medical information management system institute in 2013.

Two years after its first contract with Saudi Arabia, the consortium signed another worth $20 million with Aurora Hospital in the United States. Last May, the hospital signed another $5 million deal with the Royal Commission Hospital in Jubail, Saudi Arabia.

BY LAURA SONG, CHUNG JONG-HOON [song.hankyul@joongang.co.kr]