Remote Medical Industry Council "We Will Take Responsibility for Stable Operation of Non-Face-to-Face Medical Pilot Project"

Starting from the 1st of next month, the COVID-19 crisis alert level will be downgraded from 'Severe' to 'Alert,' and the temporarily permitted non-face-to-face medical consultations are expected to be suspended. Amid this, the platform industry has expressed its willingness to cooperate with the pilot project currently being promoted by the government.

The Remote Medical Industry Council held an emergency press conference on the 12th to convey the platform industry's stance on telemedicine.
[Photo by Remote Medical Industry Council]

The Remote Medical Industry Council (Wonsanhyeop) under the Korea Startup Forum held an emergency press conference on the afternoon of the 12th at the Korea Conference Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Jang Ji-ho, co-chairman of Wonsanhyeop, said, "We deeply appreciate the Ministry of Health and Welfare's efforts to design pilot project policies so that the benefits of non-face-to-face medical consultations can continue to be enjoyed," adding, "Non-face-to-face medical consultations have established themselves as a protective measure for public health as a complementary medical means during the pandemic, and most G7 countries have been widely utilizing non-face-to-face medical consultations through the COVID-19 period."

Following the de facto declaration of an 'endemic' (periodic outbreak of infectious diseases) at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting on the previous day, non-face-to-face medical consultations, which were temporarily permitted only at the 'Severe' stage under the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act, are now at risk of being suspended. However, since the government has announced plans to promote a pilot project, it is expected that non-face-to-face medical consultations will not disappear entirely.

Chairman Jang proposed, "For designing the pilot project, it is essential to have a government-led consultation process among stakeholders to review technical feasibility and legal issues," adding, "During this process, to prevent public confusion caused by the suspension of non-face-to-face medical consultations, the current level of the pilot project should be implemented first, and supplementary implementation should follow based on the consultation results."

At the press conference, non-face-to-face medical consultation platform companies affiliated with Wonsanhyeop, including Dr. Now, Goodoc, Meraki Place, Soldoc, Korecion Vitale, MD Square, and Peoples Health, attended. They pledged to contribute to creating a safe non-face-to-face medical consultation environment by taking the lead in the industry to ensure ▲ protection of public health exposed to ongoing infection risks ▲ compliance with guidelines for non-face-to-face medical consultation intermediary platforms ▲ social responsibility as part of the medical delivery system ▲ alleviation of social concerns regarding platforms, so that the pilot project for non-face-to-face medical consultations can operate stably.

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