Megatrends and Perspectives of Emerging Medical Services

In the era of u-health, the megatrends of new medical services are the use of information and communication technologies to provide health care information and services to stakeholders including medisumers. They pursue improved quality of health care, increased access to information and process, cost-saving, industry development related to u-Health, and enforcement of competitiveness. The goals of activating u-Health are to improve laws and regulations, to provide incentives, to increase government support and establish a monitoring system, and to encourage financial investment for institutes related to health service market for an effective health system. Characteristics of megatrends in the era of u-health are represented as "5 c's": content, community, commerce, connectivity, and care. It contains the development of 'contents' for u-health, share and exchange information in the 'u-community', promote 'commercial u-health care models', 'connectivity' for standardization, activating 'care for network governance' by developing services, and build a value- and IT-based and patient-centered purchasing system, which will bring a paradigm shift in medical services.