● The President's determination to increase the number of medical students and the resulting doctor strike issue have deepened the medical gap problem, leading the government to announce a policy of "temporarily allowing telemedicine across the board." As a result, since the 23rd, all hospitals and patients can switch to telemedicine if they wish.
● After the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine was only implemented on a limited basis. It was available in medical institutions with fewer than 30 beds, and patients were mainly those who had previously visited the hospital, with a limit of two telemedicine consultations per month for the same patient at the same hospital.
● However, with the recent policy allowing telemedicine, all related restrictions have been lifted. If the hospital desired for treatment is conducting telemedicine, even first-time patients can receive telemedicine consultations without any limit on the number of times. There is also no longer a restriction based on the size of the hospital.
● As a result, telemedicine platforms that had been somewhat retracted until recently are now actively working on service revitalization. The healthcare platform 'Goodoc' stated, "With the full permission of telemedicine, we plan to focus on seamless service response centered on user convenience." 'Ollacare' has also redesigned its service so that app users can use telemedicine 24/7 from nearby clinics, and discussions are underway to enable hospitals to operate telemedicine services as well.
● Consequently, there is growing optimism in the last-mile delivery industry that the drug delivery service, which had been fading away along with telemedicine regulations, could be revitalized. The last-mile delivery industry sees 'potential' in the drug delivery service that was temporarily allowed during the pandemic, and believes the market will reopen once the regulations on drug delivery are lifted.