LG's new medical device helps you feel no pain

LG Electronics' pain relief device MediPain [LG ELECTRONICS]

LG Electronics released a pain relief device for the Korean market, its latest healthcare product.

Named MediPain, the home device is designed to ease chronic pain using electrical signals. Chronic pain is pain that lasts longer than three months.

The machine, which comes with four electrode pads, is designed to impede the transmission of pain signals by sending non-pain information to the brain. Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare recognized it as a novel medical technique in 2013.

The company received approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to market MediPain as a medical device.
MediPain will retail for 1.99 million won ($1,670) in LG’s retail shops and other channels for corporate clients.

Asked if the product will be available outside Korea, a spokesperson for LG Electronics said that the initial focus will be at home.
“For a medical device to be launched in other markets, it should go through regulatory requirements in each country, which could be a tricky process,” the spokesperson said.
“That doesn’t mean we rule out the possibility altogether, because LG is a company whose products sell globally. But we will first look at how customers respond to the product here,” he said.

LG Electronics wants to explore products beyond its mainstay home appliances.

It released an advanced X-ray detector using artificial intelligence last year. Thanks to improved software, the device offers a more convenient, time-efficient way to generate and analyze X-ray images, according to the company.
“[LG Electronics] will strengthen its expertise in the home medical device sector by committing ourselves to thorough research,” said Oh Sang-joon, head of Home Beauty Business division at LG Electronics.

The tech company signed a partnership last October with KAIST to establish a Digital Health Care Research & Development Center at the university in Yuseong District, Daejeon for research and development of medical technology and devices.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]