여러 상황에서 큰 제약을 갖는 해양 생활. 특히 의료 서비스는 열악하다 못해 전무한 수준이다. 여기에 문제의식을 갖고 창업에 뛰어든 사람이 있다. 선원 출신의 VMS 김지석 대표는 해운 시장에 특화된 의료 서비스를 선보이고 있다.
Jisuk Kim, President. VMS Provision
Please introduce your company.
“We are a VMS that develops and operates 'specialized health and welfare services' for the shipping market. In 2023, we developed a 24-hour health counseling service called 'Med Friend' as our primary service with government support. From 2024, we plan to start operating comprehensive services such as non-face-to-face medical treatment and pharmaceutical services that can be used by shipping workers.”
What does the mission statement mean?
“VMS is short for Vessel Medical Service. I've been traveling on ships for over four years and marketed my business to introduce much-needed medical services to the shipping market, which is underserved, hence the intuitive name.”
What did you do before starting your business and what was your motivation?
“After graduating from Korea Maritime University's School of Maritime and Transportation Science (now the Department of Navigation), I went straight on board. I worked in the industry for about four and a half years, starting with a container shipping company called KMTC. I don't remember exactly when I decided to start my own business because there are so many incidents at sea, including deaths, body dismemberment, and acute shock, but I think it was something that happened to me and my brother. We got very sick twice while on board, once with diverticulitis and a high fever of almost 40 degrees that lasted for several days. It was during the COVID-19 pandemic, so I didn't have any medication or access to a hospital, and I was quarantined for three days until we reached the next port because they didn't know what was causing my illness. I was taken to the emergency room, and I thought, “This is not right.” My brother also travels, and he has congenital hypertension and needs to take medication every day, but it's hard to do that on a ship because the Korean medical and pharmacy laws prevent him from getting his medication (which is prescribed for six months or a year). Because of this, he went a month and a half without his hypertension medication. VMS was created to eliminate this medical blind spot, so our mission is to provide the same level of medical care at sea as on land.”
VMS Services screen. VMS Offerings
How poor is the current state of maritime medical care?
“It's very poor. On land, if you get sick, you can go straight to the hospital and buy medication from the pharmacy (which doesn't require a doctor's prescription), but not at sea. We live on a ship's schedule, so if you get sick, you can't go to the hospital, and the medicines are very poor. We only have essential beach medicines on board that haven't changed in over 60 years, and we often end up pushing through the pain and making ourselves sicker. When it comes to healthcare, it's all about the right time and place. Timely treatment is important, but the shipping industry is more about the ship and the environment surrounding it than it is about people. Timely treatment is hard to achieve when you're at sea, because you can't do anything - examine, prescribe, treat, etc. If you have enough medicines on board, you can prescribe them, but often you only have the medicines that you're legally required to have on board, so even that doesn't help. Seafarers have no choice but to wait when they get sick. We surveyed 120 former and current seafarers two years ago, and 95% of them said their health had deteriorated since they came aboard. Health issues are probably playing a big role in the decline of seafarers in Korea, with 30,000 ships collapsing and the average age of seafarers being in their mid-to-late 50s.”
How does the service work?
“We organized the service into four stages: prevention, initial action, emergency action, and management. To respond to the environment of ships and shipping, we consulted with various experts, including faculty members in emergency medicine, to make it more realistic.”
Since it's in the medical field, you might think there would be constraints in developing the system.
“It's not too difficult to develop the service itself, as long as you have the funds. (Laughs) Medical expertise is also not a big problem because we are working with specialized medical staff, and the willingness of medical staff and hospitals to participate is high. The only constraint is the consensus of the shipping industry, which is a highly polarized industry. It's a very conservative industry that is difficult to change unless there's a very big need for it to be addressed. We're doing a lot of different things to try to build industry consensus. We're trying to build industry consensus through our network from the ground up, and so far, we've had four large and mid-sized carriers say they're on board. Everyone agrees it's necessary, but we want to take the road less traveled and make sure we succeed.”
VMS, the organizer of the Virtual Seafarer Medical Consultation. Powered by VMS
Who are your customers?
“Anyone who works in the maritime industry is my customer.”
What is your end goal?
“The goal is to create an ecosystem where seafarers can be seen and treated at sea without too much difficulty. It's not a sin to go out to Bara and spend at least six months on board for my family and I. I want seafarers to be safer and more comfortable at sea.”
Eunjin Jang, Startup Consultant ari.maroon.co@gmail.com
여러 상황에서 큰 제약을 갖는 해양 생활. 특히 의료 서비스는 열악하다 못해 전무한 수준이다. 여기에 문제의식을 갖고 창업에 뛰어든 사람이 있다. 선원 출신의 VMS 김지석 대표는 해운 시장에 특화된 의료 서비스를 선보이고 있다.
Jisuk Kim, President. VMS Provision
Please introduce your company.
“We are a VMS that develops and operates 'specialized health and welfare services' for the shipping market. In 2023, we developed a 24-hour health counseling service called 'Med Friend' as our primary service with government support. From 2024, we plan to start operating comprehensive services such as non-face-to-face medical treatment and pharmaceutical services that can be used by shipping workers.”
What does the mission statement mean?
“VMS is short for Vessel Medical Service. I've been traveling on ships for over four years and marketed my business to introduce much-needed medical services to the shipping market, which is underserved, hence the intuitive name.”
What did you do before starting your business and what was your motivation?
“After graduating from Korea Maritime University's School of Maritime and Transportation Science (now the Department of Navigation), I went straight on board. I worked in the industry for about four and a half years, starting with a container shipping company called KMTC. I don't remember exactly when I decided to start my own business because there are so many incidents at sea, including deaths, body dismemberment, and acute shock, but I think it was something that happened to me and my brother. We got very sick twice while on board, once with diverticulitis and a high fever of almost 40 degrees that lasted for several days. It was during the COVID-19 pandemic, so I didn't have any medication or access to a hospital, and I was quarantined for three days until we reached the next port because they didn't know what was causing my illness. I was taken to the emergency room, and I thought, “This is not right.” My brother also travels, and he has congenital hypertension and needs to take medication every day, but it's hard to do that on a ship because the Korean medical and pharmacy laws prevent him from getting his medication (which is prescribed for six months or a year). Because of this, he went a month and a half without his hypertension medication. VMS was created to eliminate this medical blind spot, so our mission is to provide the same level of medical care at sea as on land.”
VMS Services screen. VMS Offerings
How poor is the current state of maritime medical care?
“It's very poor. On land, if you get sick, you can go straight to the hospital and buy medication from the pharmacy (which doesn't require a doctor's prescription), but not at sea. We live on a ship's schedule, so if you get sick, you can't go to the hospital, and the medicines are very poor. We only have essential beach medicines on board that haven't changed in over 60 years, and we often end up pushing through the pain and making ourselves sicker. When it comes to healthcare, it's all about the right time and place. Timely treatment is important, but the shipping industry is more about the ship and the environment surrounding it than it is about people. Timely treatment is hard to achieve when you're at sea, because you can't do anything - examine, prescribe, treat, etc. If you have enough medicines on board, you can prescribe them, but often you only have the medicines that you're legally required to have on board, so even that doesn't help. Seafarers have no choice but to wait when they get sick. We surveyed 120 former and current seafarers two years ago, and 95% of them said their health had deteriorated since they came aboard. Health issues are probably playing a big role in the decline of seafarers in Korea, with 30,000 ships collapsing and the average age of seafarers being in their mid-to-late 50s.”
How does the service work?
“We organized the service into four stages: prevention, initial action, emergency action, and management. To respond to the environment of ships and shipping, we consulted with various experts, including faculty members in emergency medicine, to make it more realistic.”
Since it's in the medical field, you might think there would be constraints in developing the system.
“It's not too difficult to develop the service itself, as long as you have the funds. (Laughs) Medical expertise is also not a big problem because we are working with specialized medical staff, and the willingness of medical staff and hospitals to participate is high. The only constraint is the consensus of the shipping industry, which is a highly polarized industry. It's a very conservative industry that is difficult to change unless there's a very big need for it to be addressed. We're doing a lot of different things to try to build industry consensus. We're trying to build industry consensus through our network from the ground up, and so far, we've had four large and mid-sized carriers say they're on board. Everyone agrees it's necessary, but we want to take the road less traveled and make sure we succeed.”
VMS, the organizer of the Virtual Seafarer Medical Consultation. Powered by VMS
Who are your customers?
“Anyone who works in the maritime industry is my customer.”
What is your end goal?
“The goal is to create an ecosystem where seafarers can be seen and treated at sea without too much difficulty. It's not a sin to go out to Bara and spend at least six months on board for my family and I. I want seafarers to be safer and more comfortable at sea.”
Eunjin Jang, Startup Consultant ari.maroon.co@gmail.com