KIHASA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the NHIS for collaboration in the use of health insurance big data at KIHASA’s conference hall on November 10^th.

The areas of collaboration stipulated in this MOU include conducting joint research using big data and disseminating its outcomes; building up a database and analysis infrastructure for the joint work; and developing indicators for various socioeconomic purposes.

Prior to the signing of the MOU, Kim Yong-Ik, president of the NHIS, gave a special lecture on the topic of future strategies for the health care supply system to researchers at KIHASA, pointing out the root causes of the problems and contradictions in the current health care supply system, and drawing up a blueprint for reorganizing the future health care delivery system.

KIHASA and the NHIS also held a joint seminar following the signing of the MOU. At this seminar, KIHASA senior research fellow Kang Shin-wook introduced actual cases of using health insurance administrative data in social security policymaking, and NHIS data management department head presented a big data strategy in the public sector after introducing National Health Insurance Database. The seminar was part of the groundwork on which to expand the use of health insurance big data not only as raw data essential for the designing of national policy but also in socioeconomic research.

KIHASA also held a round-table talk in which the presidents of KIHASA, KDI, KLI, KIPF, and NHIS discussed ways to promote the use of health insurance big data in the public sector and to improve its social value, by collaborating among them in using big data in the evaluation of social, economic, and labor policies and the strengthening of the social safety net.

Lee Tae Soo, president of KIHASA, commended the NHIS for its initiative to make its big data more freely available for the public, including national policy research institutes, which will enhance the effectiveness of national policy, predicting that such endeavor will bring about enormous spillover effects, which will upgrade the social value of the NHIS.

In response, Kim Yong-Ik, president of the NHIS, expressed his anticipation, saying, “I hope that this seminar and the round-table will serve as a starting point for the use of health insurance big data to be expanded into research in the areas including population, society, economy, and labor.”