Remote Medical Industry Council Holds Regular General Meeting and Adopts Resolution
"Contributing to the Establishment of Telemedicine System and Creation of a Healthy Ecosystem"
Medical Community Also Senses Change... Need for Sufficient Discussion
At the regular general meeting of the Remote Medical Industry Council held on the 19th, member companies are delivering their greetings.
[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwanju] As non-face-to-face medical consultations have become established following the COVID-19 pandemic, the related industry has for the first time issued a resolution expressing its commitment to contributing to the stabilization of the non-face-to-face medical consultation system. With the Yoon Seok-yeol administration setting the digital healthcare industry as a key policy, the future consultation process among the government, medical community, and telemedicine industry is expected to be crucial.
According to the related industry on the 22nd, the Telemedicine Industry Council under the Korea Startup Forum held its first regular general meeting on the 19th, during which time they discussed the institutionalization of non-face-to-face medical consultations and the role of the industry. The Telemedicine Industry Council is an organization formed in July last year by 15 companies operating telemedicine services to promote innovation, stabilization, and development of the telemedicine market. Major telemedicine platform companies participating include co-chair companies Dr. Now and MD Square, as well as Three J, MediBuddy, Goodoc, Biot Korea, SH Biotech, DAL Company, and Soldoc.
In particular, at this regular general meeting, the Telemedicine Industry Council adopted a resolution pledging to take the lead in stabilizing the non-face-to-face medical consultation system promoted by the Yoon Seok-yeol administration. The council resolved to ▲build trust relationships among the industry, the public, and medical staff ▲achieve mutual growth through coexistence with medical institutions ▲pursue technological innovation for safe non-face-to-face medical consultations ▲ensure medical staff and pharmacists, as providers of non-face-to-face consultations, comply with relevant laws and obligations ▲uphold the value of fair trade ▲strictly comply with laws and regulations to contribute to the establishment of the non-face-to-face medical consultation system and the creation of a healthy ecosystem.
As the telemedicine platform industry embarks on full-scale activities, discussions for the stabilization of non-face-to-face medical consultations are also expected to intensify. Currently, non-face-to-face consultations are only temporarily permitted due to the COVID-19 situation. However, with the recent spread of the Omicron variant, non-face-to-face consultations have rapidly grown. In fact, the number of non-face-to-face consultations, which was only 24,727 cases at the time of its first introduction in February 2020, has recently surpassed a cumulative total of 4.4 million cases.
The medical community, which had firmly maintained a negative stance on the introduction of non-face-to-face consultations for over a decade, is also showing a more progressive position. This appears to be based on the judgment that non-face-to-face consultations have become an irreversible trend of the times. Although the stance remains that non-face-to-face consultations should be limited as a ‘supplementary means’ to face-to-face consultations, compared to previous claims that they should be fundamentally prohibited, it is regarded as effectively having opened the door. The Korean Medical Association passed a telemedicine agenda at its regular general assembly last month, which included telemedicine centered on primary care institutions, telemedicine led by the association, and application of fees at least 1.5 times higher than those for face-to-face consultations.
Both the related industry and the medical community recognize the need for sufficient discussion until the institutionalization of non-face-to-face consultations. It is essential to coordinate the differing opinions of various stakeholders and to ensure a stable establishment of non-face-to-face consultations. Jeon Byeong-yul, president of the Korea Health Association and former director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, suggested a direction for consultation between the platform industry and the medical community at the Telemedicine Industry Council’s regular general meeting, stating, "In the past, when changing the submission of documents to health authorities from paper to electronic documents, there was strong opposition from the medical community, but once implemented, satisfaction was very high, and this became the starting point of Korea’s medical informatization. Similarly, non-face-to-face consultations have proceeded smoothly despite previous concerns, and attention should be paid to the fact that satisfaction among both patients and frontline doctors has been very high."
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