Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) Professor Myunghwan Ko (Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, School of Medicine) received the Presidential Citation at the 19th Medical Device Day ceremony held recently.

Professor Ko was recognized for his contribution to national industrial development by promoting the medical device industry in South Korea through outstanding research and development achievements in the field of medical devices.

Starting as deputy director of the Medical Device Clinical Trial Center at Jeonbuk National University Hospital in 2009, Professor Ko became the Principal Investigator of a 2015 Ministry of Health and Welfare national project to establish a medical device translational clinical trial center. He has since devoted himself to industry–university–research–hospital collaborative research and holds more than 170 publications and 63 medical device patents.

In addition, with five technology transfers and approximately 50 national collaborative research projects on medical devices, he has made a tangible contribution to the development of the domestic medical device industry.

Since 2023, he has served as the overall director of a Ministry of Science and ICT national project to foster an Innovative Future Medical Research Center. Under his leadership, the development of medical devices using innovative future technologies such as AI, robotics, and virtual reality has been successfully carried out. A virtual reality-based pain diagnostic device developed by the collaborative research team also won the Innovation Award in the Digital Health category at CES 2026 in the United States.

Professor Ko said, "I am greatly honored and grateful to receive such an undeserved award. It is thanks to the dedication of everyone who has worked with me on collaborative research so far," adding, "I will continue to devote myself to industry–university–research–hospital collaborative research related to medical devices."