ANDREW CAREY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With a population of almost 80 percent mobile users, there's no doubt that South Korea is smartphone savvy. For years, Seoul has topped Rutgers University's Digital Government Survey as it lays down the foundation to truly become a Digital State. And one of the biggest challenges it wants to tackle with technology is health care. Enter pilot program U-Health.</s>SUK-WHA KIM, PROFESSOR, SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: U-Health is the future of medicine. And the patients get -- have a problem, they used to visit the hospital or the clinic. But in the case of U-Health, there's no need for doctors coming to the patients.</s>CAREY: Originally, 200 of these health monitoring kits were sent to the homes of the elderly. Now, the program is being used at this community center. Senior citizens can conveniently pop into a location close to home and monitor their vital signs. With just a few touches of a button, they can check things like blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and other routine stats. The information is sent back to a doctor electronically, avoiding unnecessary doctors visits for simple check-ups. Now, the program's architects are working to bring the health care entities together to streamline care and to work within existing laws that make prescribing medicine digitally difficult.</s>KIM: There are so many stakeholders in the health care system. So, that makes it complex. There is a single very strong health insurance system in Korea, so I believe that kind of a strong health care insurance system can provide the kind of good health management for the patients and for the citizens of Korea.</s>CAREY: The hope is that this kind of technology can not only make Seoul and South Korea smarter, but its citizens smarter as well. Andrew Carey, CNN.
Digital State: South Korea Brings Health Care Online