Ku Sung-wook, a professor of neurosurgery at Yonsei University College of Medicine and former president of Gangnam Severance Hospital, has been appointed civilian chair of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's Medical Device Committee. His two-year term runs through June 28, 2028.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety held an appointment ceremony Friday at the Seoul Regional Office of Food and Drug Safety, attended by Ku, ministry Commissioner Oh Yu-kyung and medical device officials.
The Medical Device Committee is an official government advisory body established under the Medical Devices Act to deliberate on and advise the ministry on key matters related to the safety, performance, standards and policy of medical devices. It advises the minister of food and drug safety and the minister of health and welfare on issues directly affecting the healthcare field, including the enactment and revision of medical device standards and specifications, safety reassessments and policy development.
The committee is co-chaired by a vice commissioner of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and one civilian chair. Its membership of more than 200 includes civil servants from the ministry and the Ministry of Health and Welfare, as well as specialists from academia, research institutions and industry with extensive knowledge and hands-on experience in the medical device field.
Ku has served as a professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Yonsei University College of Medicine and has held a range of senior positions, including the 15th president of Gangnam Severance Hospital, director of external affairs at Yonsei University Health System, and vice dean for research and associate dean for the Gangnam campus at Yonsei University College of Medicine. This year he also became chairman of the Korean Society of Medical and Biological Engineering, leading efforts to build a collaborative research ecosystem across industry, academia, research institutions and hospitals and to strengthen the competitiveness of South Korea's medical device industry.
"As innovative medical devices incorporating advanced technologies such as AI and digital healthcare are rapidly proliferating, the need for a proactive and specialized management framework has become more urgent than ever," Ku said. "I will do my best to ensure that diverse voices from industry, academia, research and clinical settings are reflected in a balanced way in policy and regulatory improvements."
kty@heraldcorp.com
