SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM) today announced that the company was named “Healthcare Telecommunication Company of the Year” at the Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Best Practices Awards held in Singapore on October 16.

Since 2008, Frost & Sullivan, a global market research company, selects and awards companies across different industries that proved innovative business strategies and customer influence based on thorough assessment in a total of seven categories; environment, energy & power, industrial, chemicals, logistics, healthcare and IT.

SK Telecom was selected as the recipient in the healthcare category for its rigorous efforts, notably in suggesting innovative business vision and creating new value by converging ICT with healthcare.

Natasha Gulati, healthcare industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said, “SK Telecom has notably diversified into healthcare, rather than identifying vertical market applications for its existing telecom services, through quick but well-planned acquisitions and partnerships. Today, SK Telecom’s portfolio includes chronic disease management platforms, point-of-care diagnostics and high-tech medical centers. It is emerging as a recognized healthcare company with the goal of transforming care delivery models through connected technologies.”

Having selected healthcare as one of its new growth engines, SK Telecom has focused on development of in vitro diagnostic (IVD) devices and Smart Hospital solution.

In order to propel growth in its healthcare business, the company has made multi-dimensional efforts in R&D of core technologies and cooperation through partnerships or equity investment with promising venture capitals from home and abroad. For example, SK Telecom and Seoul National University Bundang Hospital formed a consortium and signed a contract the Ministry of National Guard of Saudi Arabia to export a hospital information system to the ministry’s affiliated hospitals.

In addition, starting with its establishment of ‘SK Telecom Healthcare R&D Center’ and ‘Shenzhen VISTA-SK Medical Center’ in Shenzhen, China last July, the company is pushing ahead with global expansion of its healthcare business.

Yuk Tae-sun, Executive Vice President and Head of New Business Division at SK Telecom, said, “SK Telecom is pleased to be recognized globally by a credible institution for its differentiated competitiveness and performance in the area of healthcare where the company applied the technological prowess in ICT. To continuously yield successful outcome in the overseas market, the company will further strive to deploy the technology and marketing competitiveness in the healthcare business.”