Comparing South Korea and Italy’s healthcare systems and initiatives to combat COVID-19
Italy and South Korea have two distinctly different healthcare systems, causing them to respond to public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic in markedly different ways. Differences exist in medical education for both countries, allowing South Korean medical graduates to have a more holistic...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:11056a9d4f314e75b9581b992f8f70ea 2023-05-15T15:13:08+02:00 Comparing South Korea and Italy’s healthcare systems and initiatives to combat COVID-19 Ashwin Palaniappan Udit Dave Brandon Gosine 2020-04-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2020.53 https://doaj.org/article/11056a9d4f314e75b9581b992f8f70ea EN ES PT eng spa por Pan American Health Organization https://iris.paho.org/handle/10665.2/52011 https://doaj.org/toc/1020-4989 https://doaj.org/toc/1680-5348 1020-4989 1680-5348 doi:10.26633/RPSP.2020.53 https://doaj.org/article/11056a9d4f314e75b9581b992f8f70ea Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública, Vol 44, Iss 53, Pp 1-5 (2020) coronavirus infection virus diseases pneumonia viral pandemics sars virus health systems Medicine R Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2020 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2020.53 2022-12-31T13:36:26Z Italy and South Korea have two distinctly different healthcare systems, causing them to respond to public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic in markedly different ways. Differences exist in medical education for both countries, allowing South Korean medical graduates to have a more holistic education in comparison to their Italian counterparts, who specialize in medical education earlier on. Additionally, there are fewer South Korean physicians per 1000 people in South Korea compared to Italian physicians per 1000 people in Italy. However, both countries have a national healthcare system with universal healthcare coverage. Despite this underlying similarity, the two countries addressed COVID-19 in nearly opposite manners. South Korea employed technology and the holistic education of its physician community, despite having a smaller proportion of physicians in society, to its advantage by implementing efficacious drive-through centers that test suspected individuals rapidly and with little to no contact with healthcare staff, decreasing the possibility of transmission of COVID-19. Conversely, Italy is presently considered the epicenter of the outbreak in Europe and has recorded the highest death toll of any country outside of mainland China. This is partially due to the reactionary nature of Italy’s public health measures compared to South Korea’s proactive response. The different healthcare responses of South Korea and Italy can inform decisions made by public health bodies in other countries, especially in countries across the Americas, which can selectively adopt policies that have worked in curtailing the spread of COVID-19 and learn from mistakes made by both countries. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública 44 1 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
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English Spanish Portuguese |
topic |
coronavirus infection virus diseases pneumonia viral pandemics sars virus health systems Medicine R Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
spellingShingle |
coronavirus infection virus diseases pneumonia viral pandemics sars virus health systems Medicine R Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Ashwin Palaniappan Udit Dave Brandon Gosine Comparing South Korea and Italy’s healthcare systems and initiatives to combat COVID-19 |
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coronavirus infection virus diseases pneumonia viral pandemics sars virus health systems Medicine R Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
Italy and South Korea have two distinctly different healthcare systems, causing them to respond to public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic in markedly different ways. Differences exist in medical education for both countries, allowing South Korean medical graduates to have a more holistic education in comparison to their Italian counterparts, who specialize in medical education earlier on. Additionally, there are fewer South Korean physicians per 1000 people in South Korea compared to Italian physicians per 1000 people in Italy. However, both countries have a national healthcare system with universal healthcare coverage. Despite this underlying similarity, the two countries addressed COVID-19 in nearly opposite manners. South Korea employed technology and the holistic education of its physician community, despite having a smaller proportion of physicians in society, to its advantage by implementing efficacious drive-through centers that test suspected individuals rapidly and with little to no contact with healthcare staff, decreasing the possibility of transmission of COVID-19. Conversely, Italy is presently considered the epicenter of the outbreak in Europe and has recorded the highest death toll of any country outside of mainland China. This is partially due to the reactionary nature of Italy’s public health measures compared to South Korea’s proactive response. The different healthcare responses of South Korea and Italy can inform decisions made by public health bodies in other countries, especially in countries across the Americas, which can selectively adopt policies that have worked in curtailing the spread of COVID-19 and learn from mistakes made by both countries. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ashwin Palaniappan Udit Dave Brandon Gosine |
author_facet |
Ashwin Palaniappan Udit Dave Brandon Gosine |
author_sort |
Ashwin Palaniappan |
title |
Comparing South Korea and Italy’s healthcare systems and initiatives to combat COVID-19 |
title_short |
Comparing South Korea and Italy’s healthcare systems and initiatives to combat COVID-19 |
title_full |
Comparing South Korea and Italy’s healthcare systems and initiatives to combat COVID-19 |
title_fullStr |
Comparing South Korea and Italy’s healthcare systems and initiatives to combat COVID-19 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Comparing South Korea and Italy’s healthcare systems and initiatives to combat COVID-19 |
title_sort |
comparing south korea and italy’s healthcare systems and initiatives to combat covid-19 |
publisher |
Pan American Health Organization |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2020.53 https://doaj.org/article/11056a9d4f314e75b9581b992f8f70ea |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública, Vol 44, Iss 53, Pp 1-5 (2020) |
op_relation |
https://iris.paho.org/handle/10665.2/52011 https://doaj.org/toc/1020-4989 https://doaj.org/toc/1680-5348 1020-4989 1680-5348 doi:10.26633/RPSP.2020.53 https://doaj.org/article/11056a9d4f314e75b9581b992f8f70ea |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2020.53 |
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Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública |
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44 |
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