Reviewed by최연승대표원장
What is the basis for being able to prescribe non-face-to-face diet herbal medicine anywhere in the country?
Non-face-to-face telemedicine is permissible when the Korean medicine doctor can adequately assess the patient’s condition—e.g., with a prior visit history or through detailed history-taking, photos, and videos that allow diagnosis without pulse palpation. Initial visits require in-person consultation by law, but follow-ups and certain conditions permit remote prescriptions. Benefits include fewer time and location restrictions; drawbacks include difficulty with palpation (pulse and abdominal exams).
The basis for non-face-to-face prescription rests on two main pillars. First, the legal aspect: current enforcement regulations of the Medical Service Act allow telemedicine for follow-up patients or chronic disease management. Diet herbal medicine is generally considered a chronic management area combined with lifestyle modification, so after an initial in-person visit to assess constitution and condition, remote prescriptions can continue. Second, the Korean medicine perspective: while pulse diagnosis (脈診, maekjin)—a core diagnostic method—is difficult remotely, inquiry (問診, munjeon), tongue diagnosis (舌診, seoljin), and body shape photo analysis can infer much of the patient’s state. Pathologies related to diet such as Spleen Deficiency (脾虛, biheo; impaired digestion/absorption), Phlegm-Fluid Retention (痰飲, dameum; accumulation of unnecessary fluids and waste), and Blood Stasis (瘀血, eohyeol; circulatory disorders) are closely linked to subjective symptoms like appetite, constipation, edema, and fatigue. Initially, I wondered how to prescribe without taking the pulse, but in practice, detailed questionnaires and photo materials allow fairly accurate direction-setting. However, this method is not suitable for everyone. For example, patients with abdominal obesity requiring abdominal palpation (複診, bokjin) or those on multiple medications are safer with in-person visits. Therefore, we recommend an initial face-to-face consultation with a visual assessment, then transition to remote follow-up. The greatest advantage of non-face-to-face care is that busy office workers can receive consistent management without time or place constraints; the disadvantage is the diagnostic limitation due to the lack of tactile information. To compensate, we guide patients to schedule periodic in-person checkups or provide supplementary test results (e.g., blood tests).