‘Digital healthcare’ to be enjoyed in the US…But illegal in Korea
Nam Do Yeong | namdo0@ | 2017-03-24 10:01:18
Samsung Electronics will launch a mobile remote medicine service in the US market through its digital healthcare platform ``S Health`` under cooperation with American Wellness, a US medical venture company, next month. It is a form in which users show the health data collected from their smartphone to doctors and receive remote consultation or video treatment from doctors. However, such services cannot be found in Korea as remote medical treatment between doctors and patients is illegal in Korea.
The domestic digital health care industry has fallen into a ``regulatory black hole`` due to the fact that the revision bill (remote medicine law), which allows remote medical treatment in the current administration is not allowed.
According to the government and the National Assembly on March 23, the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee decided to suspend the proposal for the remote medical treatment submitted by the government at the bill examination subcommittee on March 22.
The meeting was called the last bill by the Health and Welfare Commission of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The government has been trying to pass the bill for more than seven years since it submitted the remote medicine law to the 18th National Assembly in 2010, but it has yet to pass the parliamentary threshold.
A representative of the Ministry of Health and Welfare said, ‘We do not think it will be easy to proceed at once as there are of a lot of issues to be discussed. The timing of re-discussions is difficult because of complex factors such as the presidential election and opposition from the medical field.
The remote medicine is opposed by the politicians who are stigmatized as the so-called ``Park Keun-hye policy`` that the current government promoted. And it is unclear whether the next government will continue to push for the opposition of medical groups such as the Korean Medical Association.
While the remote medical debate in Korea has become a battle for interest groups and political issues and it has become a political, ‘Healthcare Big Bang`` of combination of the latest technology and medicine such as genomic technology, AI, mobile, wearable, big data is happening .
American company Venture Alive Core recently introduced an electrocardiograph attached to Apple Watch. Hand on the tape measure the ECG and send it to the doctor. Measurement data is accumulated in Apple``s digital healthcare platform, ``Health Kit``. More than three-quarters of major US hospitals now use health-kit-related data to manage chronic illnesses. Passage Genomics, a private genetic information analyst firm, analyzes health data and genomic information gathered in health kits to test the services that IBM``s artificial intelligence "Watson" coaches in lifestyle.
On the other hand, most of these services are ‘illegal’ in Korea. Since there is no related law, a doctor can not directly diagnose, prescribe, or consult a patient by video call, telephone, or text. Besides, medical information defined as sensitive information is difficult to collect on a large scale based on the Privacy Protection Act. Healthcare services that prevent diseases by using smartphones are also at an elementary level compared to overseas, which are integrating genetic information, medical data, and AI as the legal basis such as the Health Care Service Law is not provided.
Countries around the world are strongly pushing the digital health care industry development policy. In the United States, President Trump is expected to promote ‘trump care,’ which encourages private insurance, and is expected to significantly reduce medical costs through the adoption of digital healthcare. UK is supporting tax benefits and business incentives to the digital health sector, and Germany is developing a number system for remote medicine. Japan also allowed full range of remote medical treatment services last year.
Choi Yoon-hee, a senior research fellow of the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, said, ‘Due to the strong stakeholder structure and social conflicts surrounding digital healthcare, related laws and amendments have been delayed and international competitiveness has weakened.’
By Nam Do Yeong, Kim Jee Seob namdo0@
[ copyright ⓒ The Digitaltimes ]
The domestic digital health care industry has fallen into a ``regulatory black hole`` due to the fact that the revision bill (remote medicine law), which allows remote medical treatment in the current administration is not allowed.
According to the government and the National Assembly on March 23, the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee decided to suspend the proposal for the remote medical treatment submitted by the government at the bill examination subcommittee on March 22.
The meeting was called the last bill by the Health and Welfare Commission of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The government has been trying to pass the bill for more than seven years since it submitted the remote medicine law to the 18th National Assembly in 2010, but it has yet to pass the parliamentary threshold.
A representative of the Ministry of Health and Welfare said, ‘We do not think it will be easy to proceed at once as there are of a lot of issues to be discussed. The timing of re-discussions is difficult because of complex factors such as the presidential election and opposition from the medical field.
The remote medicine is opposed by the politicians who are stigmatized as the so-called ``Park Keun-hye policy`` that the current government promoted. And it is unclear whether the next government will continue to push for the opposition of medical groups such as the Korean Medical Association.
While the remote medical debate in Korea has become a battle for interest groups and political issues and it has become a political, ‘Healthcare Big Bang`` of combination of the latest technology and medicine such as genomic technology, AI, mobile, wearable, big data is happening .
American company Venture Alive Core recently introduced an electrocardiograph attached to Apple Watch. Hand on the tape measure the ECG and send it to the doctor. Measurement data is accumulated in Apple``s digital healthcare platform, ``Health Kit``. More than three-quarters of major US hospitals now use health-kit-related data to manage chronic illnesses. Passage Genomics, a private genetic information analyst firm, analyzes health data and genomic information gathered in health kits to test the services that IBM``s artificial intelligence "Watson" coaches in lifestyle.
On the other hand, most of these services are ‘illegal’ in Korea. Since there is no related law, a doctor can not directly diagnose, prescribe, or consult a patient by video call, telephone, or text. Besides, medical information defined as sensitive information is difficult to collect on a large scale based on the Privacy Protection Act. Healthcare services that prevent diseases by using smartphones are also at an elementary level compared to overseas, which are integrating genetic information, medical data, and AI as the legal basis such as the Health Care Service Law is not provided.
Countries around the world are strongly pushing the digital health care industry development policy. In the United States, President Trump is expected to promote ‘trump care,’ which encourages private insurance, and is expected to significantly reduce medical costs through the adoption of digital healthcare. UK is supporting tax benefits and business incentives to the digital health sector, and Germany is developing a number system for remote medicine. Japan also allowed full range of remote medical treatment services last year.
Choi Yoon-hee, a senior research fellow of the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, said, ‘Due to the strong stakeholder structure and social conflicts surrounding digital healthcare, related laws and amendments have been delayed and international competitiveness has weakened.’
By Nam Do Yeong, Kim Jee Seob namdo0@