[Takryucheongron] Discussing 'Non-Face-to-Face Medical Care' First for Infectious Disease Prevention

How Should We View Remote Medical Care?

Heo Yoon-jung, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker

All of humanity is suffering from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Fortunately, South Korea's infectious disease response has become a model of exemplary K-quarantine worldwide. Evaluating South Korea's COVID-19 response, one of the measures that helped protect medical institutions from the risks of infectious diseases includes non-face-to-face (untact) medical services such as telephone consultations, prescription issuance, and medical and counseling services conducted via phone and video calls for patients in residential treatment centers. However, during the COVID-19 response process, non-face-to-face medical services, which have been partially proven effective, have been mixed with debates over 'telemedicine.' Therefore, it is necessary to clearly understand what telemedicine is, why the debate continues to intensify, and to revisit the starting point of rational discussion to accurately address the key issues and prospects.

Telemedicine is a legal term emphasizing the distance between doctors and patients. Article 34, Paragraph 1 of the Medical Service Act stipulates that "medical personnel may provide telemedicine by utilizing information and communication technology to support medical knowledge or skills to medical personnel in distant locations," thus limiting the current law to support of medical technology among medical personnel. However, telemedicine generally refers to remote medical care between doctors and patients, perceived as a substitute for face-to-face consultations and discussed from the perspective of patient convenience.

In contrast, the currently discussed non-face-to-face medical services emphasize the contact between doctors and patients and are not a legal term. It refers to the concept that during infectious disease outbreaks such as COVID-19, doctors and patients can receive medical care without direct face-to-face contact. Non-face-to-face medical services were applied as a complementary measure to face-to-face consultations to ensure the safety of medical staff and patients when there is a risk of infectious diseases like COVID-19. They were permitted during the surge of COVID-19 cases to allow suspected infectious patients to consult by phone or receive prescriptions without visiting medical institutions directly, introduced from the perspective of infection prevention to protect both patients and medical staff from infectious risks.

During the COVID-19 response, various non-face-to-face services have been implemented across many sectors of our society, but none have been perfectly prepared or executed. Numerous fields and industries face new challenges, including non-face-to-face classes from elementary schools to universities, remote work, and sharing of performance videos.

As of May 27, there have been 349,000 deaths worldwide. In South Korea, a sober evaluation of non-face-to-face medical services such as telephone consultations and prescription refills, which were permitted and accumulated for infectious disease response, is necessary. We need to reconsider the significance of allowing suspected infectious patients to avoid hospital visits and prioritize testing at screening clinics through telephone consultations.

COVID-19 is changing many aspects of our society, and we are already in the midst of these changes. Now is the time to carefully examine the necessity of non-face-to-face services, which have been caught up in telemedicine debates, through a rational evaluation and mature discussion in the medical field, focusing on content rather than positions. It is not too late to decide on support or opposition after such thorough consideration.

If there is no practical benefit, further discussion will not be necessary. However, if it is judged to be a truly necessary service, the expansion of non-face-to-face services can be considered. Based on actual implementation results, why not start a proper discussion on non-face-to-face medical services, a part of telemedicine, as one of the measures to safely protect both medical personnel and patients from infectious disease risks?

Heo Yoon-jung, Member of the Democratic Party of Korea

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.