Education in Oriental Medicine in Kyung Hee University

Oriental medicine has been developed over a long period of time. When the Medical Service Act was legislated in Korea in September 25, 1951 for the first time, Oriental medicine began to have the support of the legal system. Presently, Oriental medicine has the same legal status as Western medicine in Korea. Students of Oriental medicine are qualified for the National License Examinations for Oriental Medicine Practice after finishing 6-year courses in a College of Oriental Medicine. Before the Medical Service Act came into force in 1951, acupuncture was taught based on the acupuncturist system. However, after this legislation, the acupuncturist system was invalidated and legally assimilated into the Oriental medicine system since 1962. Presently doctors of Oriental medicine are entitled to practice all aspects of Oriental medicine, including acupuncture and prescription of traditional medicine. When medical resources are compared between Western and Oriental medicines, the numbers of licensed doctors are 62 609 and 10 707 for Western and Oriental Medicine, respectively, and the number of such medical schools are 41 (entrance quota of 3300) and 11 (entrance quota of 750), respectively. The number of hospitals and local clinics is 16 643 (hospital 767, local clinic 15 876) for Western medicine and 6272 (hospital 115, local clinic 6520) for Oriental medicine (Table 1). In Korea, a medical insurance system for Western medicine was started from July 1, 1977, but was not available for Oriental medicine until February 1, 1987. The insurance coverage is quite limited covering only some areas of Oriental medicine, such as diagnosis, acupuncture and cupping glass categories. Medical expenses in Korea are estimated at about 6.0% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 1996, of which 15% is spent on Oriental medicine. This reflects the fact that the number of licensed doctors of Oriental medicine is onesixth that of the number of doctors of Western medicine. As the insurance coverage for Oriental medicine is expanded, the number of visitors to clinics of Oriental medicine is increasing already and is expected to increase rapidly. To promote Oriental medicine, the medical specialties system has been required by Oriental medicine doctors and government recently. After graduation from medical college, medical licenses should be required by the ministry and graduates have to complete a 1 year internship and 3 year residency. Those seeking to become specialists should have to take a training course at the designated hospitals and pass the qualifying examination for specialists provided by the Association of Korean Oriental Medicine. The Association has produced 436 specialists through two examinations up to the present. Eight specialty fields make up the systems, i.e. oriental internal medicine; acupuncture and moxibustion; oriental gynecology; oriental pediatrics, oriental neuropsychiatry, dermatosurgery and ophthalmo-otolaryngology; oriental rehabilitation medicine; and Sasang constitutional medicine.