Direction of Healthcare Expenditure on Research and Development / 보건행정학회지

ABSTRACT

The quality of healthcare in Korea is very good, especially in life threatening disease. However, the level of healthcare research in Korea is not good relative to that of engineering. International university rankings also were showed that engineering was generally higher ranking than medicine. The reason of this phenomenon was deeply related to expenditure on research and development (R&D). Although Korea had a lot of gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD), 75% of GERD was from business enterprise that was related to engineering. Healthcare expenditure of R&D from business enterprise is small. Healthcare expenditure from government budget allocation on R&D (GBARD) was smaller than engineering. Higher education expenditure on R&D of GERD was also small and the quantity and quality of researcher in higher education was not enough. For Korea's healthcare to become the growth engine for future, GBARD should be invested heavily in the healthcare, a large part of the increased GBARD must be invested in higher education, and the higher education should invest to secure the higher quality researcher stably.