ED Telemedicine gaining popularity
No reason to delay formal approval of remote healthcare service
The number of cases in which telemedicine services have been provided during the COVID-19 pandemic has topped 3 million. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, about 2.1 million patients have received remote healthcare services on roughly 3.1 million occasions as of Oct. 31. In February last year, the government provisionally permitted contact-free medical services until the pandemic is over, following two decades of controversy.
Patients' responses to contactless medicine were more than positive. For instance, the number of users of Doctor Now, a telemedicine and prescription drug delivery company, surpassed 500,000 in November 2020, just 10 months after it began offering services. In addition, “Gangnam Unni” (Gangnam Sister), a plastic surgery information platform, is enjoying popularity by targeting both the Korean and Japanese markets.
These examples demonstrate the convenience and effectiveness of digital healthcare provided temporarily amid the infectious disease crisis. Korea, a global IT powerhouse with the best conditions to implement remote medical services, has already wasted several decades. An amendment to the Medical Services Act failed to cross the threshold of the National Assembly in the face of opposition from doctors and some politicians sympathetic to them.
The medical community has opposed its introduction, citing threats to safety and the concentration of patients at a handful of big hospitals. However, if the records of the past two years are any guide, there were few, if any, serious misdiagnoses, and patients also had favorable responses to the service. In a survey conducted by the Korea Development Institute, 81.9 percent of respondents said that digital healthcare, including telemedicine, helped them maintain their health.
Most advanced countries are speeding up the introduction of telemedicine. For example, the U.S.'s share of virtual healthcare services surged to 13 percent from 0.15 percent before the pandemic. In Japan, about 10,000 medical institutions are participating in a remote medical system, and the number of contactless medical services totaled 19 million in France last year. In Korea, the number of COVID-19 patients receiving treatment at home nears 23,000, and more than 1,700 are waiting for hospital beds to become available. Now is the time for the government to officially permit telemedicine to help people stay healthy, advance healthcare services, and strengthen the medical industry's international competitiveness.