Cheongyang County Launches ICT-Based Remote Collaborative Care to Fill Medical Gaps in Underserved Areas

Remote Residents No Longer Need to Transfer Buses: Specialist Consultations Now Available via Video Care
Connecting Health Clinics and Community Centers
Building a 'Cheongyang-type Integrated Care Model' Linked with Home Health Management

A resident is receiving remote medical consultation at the Cheongyang Sinheung Health Clinic / Cheongyang County

In rural areas with low medical accessibility, the journey to the hospital remains long. Cheongyang County, Chungcheongnam-do, has begun full-scale operation of a remote collaborative care system utilizing information and communication technology (ICT), aiming to fill gaps in medical care for residents of underserved regions.

A public healthcare safety net is becoming a reality, allowing elderly people and patients with chronic illnesses who have difficulty visiting hospitals to receive consultations with specialists at their nearby community health centers.

On March 9, Cheongyang County announced that it would officially launch the 'Remote Collaborative Care Project for Medically Underserved Regions,' a policy initiative by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, this year.

The county health center resumed remote collaborative care services on March 5, starting with the Sinheung Health Clinic.

This initiative is a public healthcare service that provides specialist consultations, prescriptions, and health counseling via video systems for chronic disease patients who have difficulty visiting hospitals due to geographic or physical limitations.

Residents selected as participants receive their first face-to-face consultation at the county health center, and for subsequent visits, they can simply go to their nearest community health center or health clinic.

At the clinic, after basic check-ups such as blood pressure and blood sugar measurements, patients are connected with specialists through a video system.

Patients can consult with doctors and receive consultations and prescriptions at the same time via the screen, significantly reducing the need to travel to a hospital.

Starting this year, the county will enhance operational efficiency by linking remote collaborative care with the 'Home Health Management Project.'

In this model, nurses from the county health center visit households with mobility difficulties to check basic health status, and if needed, connect patients with doctors via video system on-site so that they can receive consultations.

This approach represents the 'Cheongyang-type Integrated Care Model,' designed to address both the challenge of accessing medical institutions in rural areas and the problem of an aging population.

In fact, the county conducted a total of 280 remote collaborative care sessions last year. According to the county, satisfaction was high among residents of remote areas with inconvenient transportation, with many saying that the inconvenience of having to change buses multiple times to visit the health center had been alleviated.

Kim Sangkyung, Director of the Cheongyang County Health Center, stated, "In rural areas where aging is rapidly progressing, remote collaborative care is no longer an option but an essential public healthcare service. We will expand ICT-based medical services to reduce medical blind spots and ensure that every county resident can receive stable health management."

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