The Seoul Metropolitan Government said on the 6th that it has appointed Kim Hyun-chul, a professor at Yonsei University College of Medicine, as its new chief health policy adviser. Kim will review the city's major policies from the perspective of citizens' health and propose new policy ideas.
The chief health policy adviser is a non-standing private-sector expert appointed to bring outside expertise and perspective into city administration, serving a two-year term. Health in this context goes beyond the absence of disease to encompass physical, mental and social well-being as defined by the World Health Organization charter.
The adviser examines and advises on how major city policies affect citizens' physical, mental and social health. The role also involves proposing policy improvements across a range of areas, including life-cycle health management, mental health, prevention of social isolation, health and welfare for vulnerable groups, and the creation of healthy living environments.
Kim is both a physician and an economist, having graduated from Yonsei University College of Medicine. He earned a master's degree in economics from Yonsei University and a master's in public health from Seoul National University, followed by a doctorate in economics from Columbia University in the United States. He previously served as a professor at Cornell University and later held a tenured position at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
He has studied issues affecting people's lives — including health, education, labor and demographics — using economic methods. He currently serves as director of the Institute for Population and Talent at Yonsei University and as head of policy planning at the AI Medical Business Division of Yonsei University Health System. He has also served as an honorary mayor of Seoul for population and low birth rate issues in the city's eighth honorary mayor program, and as a member of the inclusive growth subcommittee of the Seoul Planning Committee, part of the city's "Global Top 3" initiative.
Kim plans to take a comprehensive look not only at existing health care policy but also at factors that influence citizens' health, such as demographic structure, income, education, jobs and living environments. In particular, he intends to upgrade customized health management programs such as "Wrist Doctor 9988" and the "Seoul Fitness Test," and to broaden the scope of health policy to cover the low birth rate, pregnancy, childbirth and child-rearing, mental health, single-person households and social isolation, and integrated community care.
He will also provide policy advice on integrated community health care in response to a super-aged society, improving quality of life in old age, closing health gaps for people with disabilities and vulnerable groups, and smart health and welfare services.
"A city's competitiveness is not completed by hardware alone, such as roads and buildings, and the core of its software is ultimately people's lives," the new health policy adviser said. "Health, education, jobs and welfare must be woven together." He added, "Drawing on my experience studying people as both a doctor and an economist, I will help ensure that the lives of Seoul citizens actually improve."
