South Korean president Park Geun-hye (pictured) has backed the remote monitoring of patients and the elderly as a key growth engine for the country, according to Xinhua.

“The recent overseas trip provided me with a great opportunity to think about the future direction to which our economy should go amid the rapidly-changing world economy. One of them was remote healthcare,” she said, following a return from a foreign trip that included the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Samsung is one of the country’s companies that could benefit from any government support for telehealth. It has already made related moves with its smart watch and health apps. The vendor has identified health as a key growth market for the future.

Another key player is SK Telecom, the country’s largest mobile operator, which has a number of initiatives including a joint venture called Health Connect with the Seoul National University Hospital.

In fact Korean companies are relatively advanced in this area compared to elsewhere.

Park said current healthcare systems, which depend on face-to-face diagnosis and treatment, cannot address exponentially growing demand for healthcare from an aging population.

The country’s Ministry of Health and Welfare has said remote health monitoring will be backed by local hospitals, noting that people who live in remote locations, as well as the elderly and the disabled, will benefit from the remote examination and treatment.