As South Korea faces growing elderly-care demands, the next generation of digital health platforms may need to support not only individual patients, but also the families helping them manage their health.
South Korea’s healthcare system is entering a new phase of demographic pressure. In December 2024, the country officially became a super-aged society, with people aged 65 and older accounting for 20% of its population, or more than 10.2 million people. As the number of older adults grows, healthcare increasingly extends beyond hospitals and consultations into homes, where families often help manage prescriptions, medical records, appointments and long-term treatment.
Yet much of digital healthcare remains organised around the individual patient. Applications typically focus on personal medical records, symptom tracking or communication with healthcare providers. The challenge is that managing health, particularly in older age and chronic illness, is rarely an individual activity.
Recent research in South Korea highlights the gap. A 2026 study published in European Journal of Ageing, using national surveys of older adults with functional limitations, found that unmet care needs increased from 20.4% in 2014 to 52.4% in 2023. Informal care from family and friends declined sharply, while formal care did not expand enough to compensate.
The findings point to a growing need for healthcare models that recognise the changing role of families while strengthening professional care. For digital health companies, this raises a broader question: should technology be designed around patients alone, or around the wider network of people involved in their care?
The family is an overlooked part of digital healthcare
Family members frequently help older adults navigate healthcare, from understanding prescriptions and arranging consultations to monitoring symptoms and maintaining medical histories. However, their involvement does not always translate into access to reliable information or meaningful support.
A 2026 study published in JMIR Aging, examining 102 patient-caregiver pairs in South Korea, found that older heart-failure patients had significantly lower digital literacy than their caregivers. Adult children made up 61.8% of the caregiver group, while spouses accounted for 32.4%.
Importantly, the researchers found that patients’ and caregivers’ digital literacy influenced their own self-care behaviours, but did not automatically translate into better outcomes for the other person. They argued that digital interventions should address patients and caregivers as distinct users.
This distinction matters for platform design. Giving a family member access to an older person’s health information is not enough. Patients must retain control over their information, while caregivers need tools that help them understand and support care without replacing medical professionals.
The opportunity, therefore, is not simply to create shared health-record applications. It is to build digital experiences that recognise the different responsibilities, capabilities and information needs of patients and caregivers.
Building healthcare technology around families
Bangladesh-based healthtech startup Medz.fit is exploring this approach through products designed to support everyday healthcare management.
While conversing with KoreaTechToday, founder Mahmud Haasan said that South Korea’s advanced healthcare infrastructure does not remove the emotional responsibility families feel towards their relatives.
“South Korea has built one of the world’s most technologically advanced healthcare environments. But even the most sophisticated healthcare system cannot replace the emotional responsibility we feel toward our parents, children, and families.”
One example is Momota, Medz.fit’s family health-document companion, designed to organise prescriptions, medical reports and health records. Haasan described a potential use case involving an adult daughter in Seoul whose elderly parents live elsewhere. With appropriate permission, a family-centred platform could allow her to remain informed about their medical history without repeatedly asking them to locate and send documents.
MedzLens, the company’s medicine-information companion, is another example. It aims to make medicine information easier to understand and access, helping patients and caregivers prepare informed questions for pharmacists without replacing professional medical guidance.
The wider product ecosystem includes HeyDr, which focuses on reducing administrative friction for doctors, and pharmacy operations products such as Aayna Khata and SnaPOS. These illustrate how the company approaches healthcare across patients, providers and medicine retail rather than treating each interaction as an isolated digital service.
Haasan sees the family as a common thread across these experiences. “Today, South Korea is facing a significant demographic transformation. More than one in five people are aged 65 or older. As the population ages, families face new challenges in managing chronic conditions, medication routines, medical information, and caring for loved ones who may live independently.”
From individual applications to connected care
South Korea’s policy direction is also expanding the role of technology beyond hospitals. In October 2026, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced an AI transformation roadmap for welfare and care, including smart-home services designed to monitor health and safety, identify potential risks and connect people with relevant support.
The roadmap reflects a broader shift towards care delivered in everyday environments. As more older adults seek to remain in their homes and communities, coordination between patients, relatives, healthcare providers and formal care services becomes increasingly important.
Family-facing digital platforms could complement this transition by helping organise medical information, support medication routines and improve communication between relatives and care providers. However, their usefulness will depend on interoperability with established healthcare systems, reliable information, patient consent and strong privacy safeguards.
This is also where the distinction between family support and family responsibility becomes important. South Korea’s declining informal-care figures show that families cannot be expected to absorb growing care demands on their own. Technology can reduce administrative friction and improve coordination, but it cannot replace professional caregivers, clinical judgement or accessible public services.
Technology that supports the responsibility of care
For Medz.fit, the opportunity extends beyond introducing individual products into another market. Haasan sees potential collaboration with Korean healthtech companies, combining Korea’s expertise in healthcare infrastructure, medical technology and digital systems with Bangladesh’s experience in building practical and affordable solutions around everyday healthcare behaviour.
“I believe there is a meaningful opportunity for collaboration between Korean healthtech companies and Medz.fit.”
He added that Korean partners could help the company understand clinical environments, interoperability standards and regulatory requirements. However, Medz.fit has not announced a South Korean market entry.
The larger question for the healthcare technology industry is how to make digital systems reflect the way care actually happens. A patient may be the person receiving treatment, but the work of managing health often involves several people. Designing for that reality requires more than adding family-sharing features. It requires patient autonomy, caregiver support, accessible interfaces and stronger connections with professional care.
Haasan captured this shared responsibility through a comparison between families in the two countries.
“A son in Bangladesh worrying about his father’s health and a daughter in South Korea worrying about her ageing mother may live in very different healthcare systems. But the emotion behind that concern is remarkably similar. Technology cannot replace that love or responsibility. But perhaps we can make it a little easier for families to care for one another. That is what Technology for Humanity means to me.”
As South Korea adapts its healthcare system to an ageing population, the next generation of digital health innovation will need to look beyond the individual patient. Its success will depend not only on how effectively technology connects people to medical services, but also on how well it supports the families and professionals who help sustain care between consultations.
