Q. Can I receive non-face-to-face diet herbal medicine prescriptions even if I live on Jeju Island? I'm curious about the preparations.

I initially felt that prescribing herbal medicine without face-to-face consultation was a bit awkward—how can we assess the pulse remotely? But in practice, non-face-to-face care encourages even more thorough preparation. The process begins with a 30–40 minute phone or video consultation where we inquire about your constitution, digestion, sleep, bowel movements, and stress levels. From a Traditional Korean Medicine perspective, we evaluate elements such as Spleen Deficiency (脾虛, biheo)—when the spleen's function weakens, it fails to process food properly, making weight gain easier—Phlegm-Fluid (痰飮, dameum)—an accumulation of waste in the body—and Blood Stasis (瘀血, eohyeol)—impaired blood circulation. After the consultation, herbal medicine is tailored to your condition, available as decoctions, pills, or granules. The prepared medicine is shipped via courier, including to Jeju Island—in summer, it is packed with ice packs to maintain stability. In telemedicine, your active provision of information is crucial. For example, tongue color and coating reveal the state of the spleen and stomach, so we often request a tongue photo during the initial visit. Recent blood test results (liver function, kidney function, blood sugar, cholesterol) help avoid drug interactions. Follow-ups are conducted every 2–4 weeks via text or app to check digestion, constipation, diarrhea, and fatigue, adjusting dosage or composition as needed. In my experience, treatment outcomes are not significantly different from in-person visits, though individual variation exists. For those on Jeju, if pulse diagnosis is desired but inconvenient, you may visit a nearby Korean Medicine clinic for pulse assessment and share the results with us. In summary, non-face-to-face herbal diet therapy is entirely feasible, and with proper preparation, you can start without trial and error—I provide this checklist based on my own early experiences.