Tae-ho Kim, Endocrinology Specialist

Hello HUMs, it’s the Humanscape team!

At Humanscape, we work intimately with top-tier doctors, professors, and professional researchers working in the healthcare field. They provide invaluable insight to the Humanscape project.

Today, we have the honor of interviewing an advisor thats works at the heart of the medical field as a physician. What insights will this advisor give to Humanscape this time?

1. Greetings! We hope you could introduce yourself to the Humanscape community about what you do :)

Good afternoon. My name is Tae-ho Kim.

I work as an endocrinology specialist. As an endocrinologist, I mainly examine chronic diseases (diabetes, thyroid, hyperlipidemia).

I am personally interested in the digital healthcare and IT field. Although I am no expert, I have been coding through programming languages such as Python and R. I also work as a consultant with my fellow colleagues in the DHP.

2. It’s very clear, in fact, that you have a close relationship and interest in the digital healthcare field. What did you see in Humanscape to join and become an advisor?

There are too many cases where this field becomes meaningless unless you look at it from a medical point of view. Moreover, there may be differences in what medical professionals come across and what companies encounter in topics like regulation and practical features of this field. I joined this project as an advisor to cut back the number of trial and error that may arise.

And I think that the ecosystem that Humanscape draws is great. Having a system that rewards data providers benefits patients. Besides, the system put in place with the information gathered can produce further meaning and value.

The ability to provide quality information to people entering this environment is another charming trait of this project. There is a dearth of quality information on the internet. For instance, it’s like an elementary student answering a university level question (chuckle). I believe firmly that as the Humanscape project continues to grow, medical information provided can be properly filtered and evaluated. The subject of evaluation could be done by an expert group or by a patient.

3. Thank you for sharing your insight on this discipline. We know that you are currently serving as a endocrinology specialist. Is there any inconvenience (while diagnosis) caused by insufficient medical data?

There are many times…! (chuckle)

There may be a slight difference in opinion between professionals in various fields, but the system in place is a structure where we need to see a lot of patients in a short span of time. Both the physicians and patients show clear discontent with the current system. First, it is difficult for the doctor to know the exact condition of the patient. Let’s say you have a patient having a hard time controlling the state of their diabetes. I need to ask about their food consumption, what exercises they do, what kind of lifestyle they live, but I cannot. Then, patients are not satisfied because their examination ends way earlier compared to the amount of time they spent waiting. To sum things up, there isn’t enough sharing of the data on the patient’s condition. There just isn’t room for this kind of information to be communicated well.

Above all, when you do research, you need data that more accurately reflects reality. Clinical studies conducted in controlled environments may not reflect real-world data. It’s because researchers manage the data, but perhaps this can be remedied if patients enter it themselves.

4. You were formerly head of the Myungji Hospital Care Design Center. What kind of work is done there?

Easily put, its main focus is to improve the efficiency of the hospital process. The goal is to make the medical environment efficient through researching in aspects like room design and program development. There were times when we changed the medical field through utilizing IT. Although I didn’t do it personally, Google Glasses were tested at Myungji Hospital. We demonstrated that Google Glasses could be used so that emergency rooms and ambulances could communicate effectively. It’s a place to find and create innovations.

In the case of Humanscape, you can think of it as a completely new design. If you try to create a ‘patient-centered’ ecosystem this very instant, it could create a feeling of disorganization. It may be a difficult task, but if we do it well, we can change the paradigm of the healthcare system.

5. Are there any last words that you would like to comment or share with Humanscape?

Just don’t lose value of the original meaning of this project. The most important attribute that we see in accelerating is the people in it. Frankly, there are a lot of teams that are wanting to do something similar, but we decided to pick this group by looking at the team.

Adding on to that, the group of advisors that Humanscape clearly shows that this project can create something of meaningful value. I truly hope that Humanscape succeeds by reaching the end with the original meaning at heart.

Doctor Tae-ho Kim has shared with Humanscape field experience that is hard to easily come across. We ask for continued advice so that the project can keep developing well. Thank you!