The Internationalization Research Center (advisor, Professor Jang-mi Lee, Department of Art & Design), a start-up team composed of students and graduates of Sahmyook University, won the ‘Red Dot Design Award’ last year and the ‘iF Design Award’ this year, achieving two of the world’s top three design awards.

The Internationalization Research Center recently won the German ‘iF Design Award 2023 (International Forum Design Award)’ Service Design category for its global healthcare service ‘INMEDIC.’ Last year, they won the ‘Red Dot Design Award 2022’ in the Brand & Communication category.

‘INMEDIC’ is an app-based global healthcare service that increases access to medical care for migrants (foreigners) and helps them live independent medical lives.

Large hospitals with interpreters are suffering from a shortage of human resources due to the large number of foreign and domestic patients. On the other hand, small local clinics cannot accept foreign patients due to the burden of hiring interpreters. As a result, migrants who need an interpreter have to wait an average of two days at an expensive and distant large hospital, even if they have mild symptoms.

‘INMEDIC’ provides solutions such as △medical pictograms △global health maps, and △medical video interpretation so migrants can easily and conveniently use medical services without such problems.

Patients can select intuitive medical pictograms according to their symptoms and complete a questionnaire. It also has a medical guidance system that allows you to filter and recommend·receipt medical institutions that match the symptoms. It provides professional medical interpretation services by quickly connecting “senior migrants” through video calls.

As such, INMEDIC is a design service project that embodies the vision and core values of guaranteeing the medical rights of migrants. It has implemented an intuitive and straightforward UI (user environment) that users of various cultures can easily use and an optimized and concise UX (user experience) design to find and visit hospitals quickly.

The 60 symptom pictograms, which are considered to be INMEDIC’s special features, were tested on immigrants from the United States, China, Germany, Finland, Thailand, Mongolia, etc., through the AB test (a test to select the best choice among two or more options), so that users of various cultures could understand the symptoms with shared meaning.

In addition, through a branding process, INMEDIC’s vision and values were designed to show the entire service so that patients visiting the hospital from out of town can feel intimacy and rely on the interpreter without feeling anxious.

Ji-min Kim (Senior, Department of Art & Design) in charge of design said, “The design direction of INMEDIC is a simple and refined design that is comfortable for the viewer, a friendly and user-centered design that everyone can use without barriers regardless of age or nationality and has a flexible and bright design. He continued explaining that “Winning the ‘iF’ and ‘Red Dot’ awards are a recognition of our effort to discover the problem of migrants who were alienated from essential medical services, planning differentiated design solutions for customers’ healthy and independent lives, and implementing them well with digital services.”

INMEDIC is currently commercialized and provided by eight university language centers in Korea, local governments such as Gyeonggi-do and Gyeongsangnam-do, and insurance companies. Starting in the second half of this year, they plan to expand the service to Koreans overseas, starting with Southeast Asia.

Recently, it was selected for a start-up acceleration program, ‘Citypreneurs Ulsan 2023’, promoted by the UN to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with Ulsan Metropolitan City, determined to contribute to solving Ulsan’s urban problems through INMEDIC, and creating an impact start-up ecosystem.

CEO Joon-jae Oh (graduated from the Department of Computer and Mechatronics Engineering, degree in software) said, “Now that a lot of attention is being paid to health and wellness after the endemic, INMEDIC will become a safer global mobility preparation for people around the world. We will strive to ensure a safe life for all migrants worldwide through rapid progress.”

Meanwhile, The ‘iF Design Award,’ on the other hand, which started in 1953, is the most prestigious award in the field of design. It is considered one of the world’s top three major industrial design awards, along with Germany’s “Red Dot” and the United State’s “IDEA.”