Korea can become a hub for oriental herbal medicine, says Raimund Royer, Korea's foremost Western expert on oriental medicine

As Korea's one and only Western expert on oriental medicine, the words of Raimund Royer carries weight.

"I first came to Korea as a traveler in 1987, even before the 1988 Olympic Games took place," said Royer, who is now one of the top experts in his field, the Korea Herald reported.

Royer, who hails from Austria, is medical director of the international clinic of the Jaseng Hospital of Oriental Medicine in Seoul.

"Back then, Korea was unknown in Europe and it was close to impossible to find any books or information on the country or the language."

Fortunately, he found a basic book on the Korean language written in the 1920s out of all places, North Korea. He said he became "vaguely intrigued" by Korea's buddhism and martial arts. But it was serendipity that may have turned a casual visitor into a lifelong student of oriental medicine.

"When I sprained my ankle in my taekwondo class, people recommended that I visit an oriental hospital," Royer said.

"Of course, like most foreigners, I also feared the idea of acupuncture, but wanted to experience Korea to the fullest and figured that this was another one of such chances.

"The doctor stabbed needles into parts of my body that seemed quite unrelated to my sprained ankle, but his measures indeed took effect and I was soon able to walk without pain."

As a result, Royer became a convinced of oriental medicine and also decided to become a student. However, no school would take him.

Medical school

"I applied to one of the most prestigious oriental medicine universities in Korea only to receive a flat refusal," the doctor said. "Apparently, there had been another Western student in the past who gave up after a few terms and officials thought I would be no different."

So he spent two years studying the Korean language and basic Chinese characters. Afterwards, he was accepted into the Daegu Haany University of Oriental Medicine in 1991 after satisfying their basic language requirements.

"My clumsy Korean, the incomprehensible Daegu dialect and all the Chinese letters all turned out to be challenging, but not as much as the intricate basic concepts of oriental medicine," he said.

"The oriental perspective that human health is based on the flow of vital energy (ki) fascinated and confused me at the same time."

Royer learned Korean at Yonsei University and Chinese letters and philosophy at a university in Gangwon Province, said the Korea Times.

The Korea Herald says that more than 10 years have passed since "he became Korea's top oriental doctor." And today, he is the most "sought after person in the field."

Promoting Korean oriental medicine

"People are concerned about the saturation of the oriental medicine market, but few have turned their eyes to the overseas market or the growing foreigner population in Korea," Royer said.

"The Korean oriental medical circles and schools need to open up their doors to the international society and foreign national aspirants.

"The fact that it has been a local medical art for so long also means that it still has a wide blue ocean market in the rest of the world.

"However, the Korean government and the oriental medicine circles tend to settle for the given local market."

While China has tried to promote oriental medicine marketing itself as its home and authority more than 20 years ago, in an environment of frequent food scandals and lost trust in China when it comes to food and medicine, Korea has an opportunity to become an "international hub of herbal medicine", he explained.

But "Korean medicine is not known. The biggest issue is how to let the world know about this medicine," Royer believes. So, Korea must promote itself through international exchange programs and campaigns, he said.

According to Royer "acupuncture is known as Chinese medicine in other countries no matter how effective and competitive traditional Korean acupuncture is."

"Acupuncture is already a Chinese medicine. It's already a market that we lost," he said.

Thus, Korea must market other fields, he believes.

"What kinds of fields can we introduce as Korean medicine? There are several ways. For instance, we can introduce this integrated system of Western and Oriental medicine combined or treatments of special diseases, like spine problems," he said. "We also have constitutional medicine. That's a unique Korean medicine; it's not Chinese."

Korea must also focus on globalizing herbal medicines through a private-public partnership with the Korean government, Royer thinks.

"What should be done to get or control this market? We have to find ways to introduce herbal medicine as a more Korean style. It's all about marketing and it's all about quality," said Royer. "We need a strategy and a long-term vision. Traditional herbal medicine is worth investing in. If we do it right, it's a huge market."

"Few may know it, but in Germany almost 50,000 doctors are using acupuncture when treating their patients," said Royer. "The European medical circles already have keen interest in oriental medicine herbs but the problem is that Korea is presently not ready to meet such demands."

And in a time when more people are seeking natural, healthy remedies to better health, oriental medicine can provide answers, Royer believes.

"The human body is so complex and interrelated that it may not just be seen as an aggregate of parts . . . Oriental medicine sees a person as a whole, as a flow of universal energy and may thus become a fundamental cure without causing unnecessary burden," said Royer.