We continue to observe emergence of new diseases and symptoms that threaten our health. The demand for enhanced healthcare service is ever increasing as society becomes more affluent than ever. Aging population adds additional strains to healthcare system as well as to the vitality of the economy. Digitalization and advances in information and communication technologies adds more complexity to meeting people’s health needs.

To address these challenges, we need innovative multidisciplinary health convergence to provide sustainable, tailored, and evidence-based health service for people who live in digitalized society. The traditional disease control or medical model cannot address these complex and daunting challenges appropriately. Population-based transdisciplinary approaches with a focus on enhancing health and quality of life are needed that include, but are not limited to, behavioral science, social science, epidemiology, health economics, policy analysis, and community-based participatory approaches.

Our Department was originally established at Ewha Womans University in 1963 as the Department of Health Education and subsequently took a few different names before it took the current name of the Department of Health Convergence in 2016. This Department has educated thousands of female leaders in the field of public health and health education for the past half a century in Korea.

With rich legacy and recent restructuring that included doubling the size of tenure-line faculty, we are poised to make a bold and big leap toward an excellent academic department which contributes not only to the research mission and advancement of the public health field but also to the quality education of future leaders in our field, which includes, but is not limited to, health policy, health economics, global public health, digital health, design convergence in healthcare service, health promotion planning and evaluation, health education, insurance underwriting, and medical tourism. Thank you.

Professor and Department Chair