Health Connect, a joint venture between SK Telecom and Seoul National University Hospital, launched its first pilot-version of smart healthcare service called Health-On.

SK Telecom, the country’s biggest mobile carrier, said Monday that the new service allows people to periodically check the status of their health evaluated by the hospital, which will provide online and offline consulting.

Users will be able to use such a service via mobile devices and the Internet, and access individual health information which will be stored in the telecom’s database system. They can also follow up on their medical treatment progress through mobile applications, the company noted.

Health Connect has offered the test-version of business-to-business Health-On service to some 20 employees of SK Telecom, with the aim of fully launching it sometime in the second half of this year by expanding the service to other Korean conglomerates.

Korea’s healthcare market reached about 81 trillion won in 2010, accounting for about 7 percent of its GDP, and expected to hit 256 trillion won, or 11 percent of GDP, by 2020.

SK Telecom noted that about 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies have been using such smart health management service to increase work efficiency.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)