Unlock the Power of Endoscopy: Discover the Family Medicine Association’s Groundbreaking Education and Certification Program

【Health and Welfare News】 In the field of cancer screening endoscopy, amidst controversy over endoscopy education and certification, the Korean Family Medicine Association has argued that the screening endoscopy education and certification qualifications provided by the Korean Academy of Family Medicine should be officially recognized. In addition, the Korean Family Medicine Association has strongly opposed the introduction of a license system for opening a practice and a special economic system for the corporation.

The Korean Society of Family Medicine (Chairman Kang Tae-kyung) held the 2024 Fall Academic Conference and the 52nd Training Course at the Baekbeom Kim Gu Memorial Hall on the 22nd.

Chairman Kang Tae-kyung said at a press conference, “As primary care experts, family medicine doctors provide endoscopic services in the industrial complex health screening and are contributing to the promotion of national health,” and “The education and certification work of the Korean Society of Family Medicine should be improved and recognized starting today in the quality assessment of the field of cancer screening endoscopic procedures.”

In addition, it was pointed out that the recognition of qualifications for endoscopist training and certification in the 5-cycle screening institution evaluation should be expanded to other academic societies in addition to the Korean Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and the Korean Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.

The Korean Academy of Family Medicine emphasized that screening endoscopy education and certification will be an important testing ground for increasing the fairness of screening institution evaluations and improving the efficiency of the medical system, and that by officially recognizing the expertise of the Korean Academy of Family Medicine in endoscopic examinations, opportunities to protect the nation’s health through early cancer detection will be expanded.

Chairman Kang Tae-kyung said, “Doctors in family medicine, surgery, and internal medicine also perform endoscopic examinations, receive evaluations, and provide education,” and added, “However, the Korean Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and the Korean Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy are gradually raising their evaluation standards and only acknowledging the education they provide. Therefore, doctors in family medicine are receiving endoscopic examination education from other departments.”

In particular, he raised his voice, saying, “This issue is a matter of life and death for family medicine,” and “The endoscopy education and certification provided by the Korean Academy of Family Medicine must be recognized.”

Kyung Moon-bae, the vice president of the Family Medicine Association, also emphasized, “It has been about 20 years since the Family Medicine Association began providing endoscopy education,” and “University hospitals also have family medicine doctors participating in the examination. It is unreasonable that the education led by the family medicine department is not recognized in the examination evaluation. They should be sufficiently recognized for their efforts.”

We had a meeting with the corporation regarding this issue. Baek Jae-wook, Vice President of Insurance, explained the atmosphere of the meeting by saying, “We explained it faithfully and there was no negative reaction. The Korean Society of Family Medicine has been providing endoscopy education and the examination itself is not illegal. There is no evidence of a difference in the quality of examinations between gastroenterologists and family medicine doctors.” He added, “It is unfair to make a difference when there is no difference. The corporation and the Ministry of Health and Welfare said they would make reasonable adjustments.”

In addition, the Korean Society of Family Medicine expressed strong opposition to the government’s push to introduce a ‘practitioner licensing system.’

The Korean Society of Family Medicine pointed out that the introduction of the private practice licensing system ▲is a system to secure cheap labor for higher-level hospitals, ▲there are issues of fairness between doctors who have already obtained licenses and those subject to the new system, as well as issues of discrimination against other medical professions such as dentists and oriental medicine doctors, and ▲it is a policy that infringes on the autonomy of medicine, and the damage will be passed on to the people, and that this is closer to intimidation than reform.

Accordingly, the Korean Society of Family Medicine has emphasized that self-regulation by medical associations is essential for license management and discipline, and argued that issues related to licenses should be resolved through self-discipline and self-correcting actions by the medical association centered on the Korean Medical Association.

In addition, the special police system that grants special judicial police authority to employees of the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service runs the risk of undermining the basic principles of the judicial system and the public service society and shaking the foundation of the judicial system, suggesting that it is necessary to strengthen the authority of a group of experts to crack down on illegal medical institutions.