By Kim Young Deok and Lee Hana

Egyptian surgeon Shanann Mohamed flew to Korea in July last year to remove several malignant tumors on his liver, as the procedure is not widely available in Egypt. The surgery gave him a small scar but no complications, thus he made a full recovery.

The number of those coming from abroad to Korea to receive treatment for serious illnesses is on the rise. According to a report on this trend released last year by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), the domestic internal medicine sector in 2017 treated over 80,000 foreign patients, the highest number among the country's 15 leading medical departments.

Second place went to plastic surgery with 48,000 foreign patients. Over the past ten years, the number of foreign patients going under the knife for cosmetic reasons has seen a 42-percent increase since Korea allowed it back in 2009.

Yet internal medicine is steadily gaining market share in Korea's medical tourism, which has traditionally been dominated by plastic surgery. The KHIDI report showed that in 2017, the number of internal medicine patients increased 5.4 percent year-on-year, while that of plastic surgery patients increased 2 percent over the same period.

Im Young-ie, director of foreign patient recruitment at KHIDI, said this shift is an indication that Korean medical technology is highly recognized abroad. "Patients with stomach, liver and rectal cancer who are treated here have a relatively high five-year survival rate," she said. "The survival rates for cerebrovascular disease (in Korea) come in first or second place (worldwide)."

"For serious illnesses, (foreign) patients are very interested in case studies and usually come to Korea based on a recommendation from friends or family. Chinese patients, who used to comprise the majority of plastic surgery cases (in Korea), are also increasingly turning to internal medicine here."

In 2017, Korea attracted 320,000 foreign patients from some 190 countries, according to the report.

kyd1991@korea.kr