73% of Physician-Scientist Graduate Students at Risk of Research Disruption Due to Military Service... Jeon Jinsuk Proposes Bill to Improve Military Service System

Military-demand specialties expanded from 2 to 13
47 of 64 graduate students face restrictions on program eligibility
Postdoctoral research support budget also cut by 16.9 billion won

More than 7 in 10 male students undergoing residency training while enrolled in a government-supported graduate program to train physician-scientists are at risk of having their research interrupted because they are barred from being assigned as specialized research personnel for military service.

According to data submitted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Health Industry Development Institute to Jeon Jinsuk, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party of Korea and a member of the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee, 47 of the 64 graduate students in this year’s physician-scientist training program (73.4%) were in “specialties required by the military,” which restricts assignment as specialized research personnel.

Unlike in certain fields such as firefighting, physician-scientists who serve as military doctors must suspend their research activities for 36 months. Assignment as specialized research personnel is an alternative, but those training in specialties designated by the Ministry of National Defense as required by the military are restricted from being assigned. The number of such specialties rose from two in 2024 to 12 last year and 13 this year.

The number of physician-scientists being trained was also found to be low. An average of 83 non-clinical physician-scientists graduate each year from 40 medical schools and two institutes of science and technology in South Korea, equivalent to 2.7% of the 3,058 medical school graduates nationwide.

Research support after doctoral degree completion has also been reduced. The government’s budget proposal for its Global Physician-Scientist Training Program for next year is 844 billion won, down 169 billion won (16.7%) from this year’s 1.014 trillion won. The program supports postdoctoral research, international training and collaborative research.

On October 21, Jeon sponsored an amendment to the Health and Medical Services Technology Promotion Act to establish a basis for consultations on improving the military service system and expand support for research time and personnel costs.

“The government is investing public funds in training physician-scientists, yet there is a severe lack of systems to support them in continuing their research,” Jeon said. “We will build infrastructure tailored to the needs of the field, including improvements to the military service system and protections for research time.”

Jeon Jinsuk, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party of Korea.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.