Q. If I live in a province, can I receive a non-face-to-face diet herbal prescription from a Seoul Korean medicine clinic? I'm curious about the pros and cons.

The biggest advantage of non-face-to-face prescriptions is saving travel time and costs. This is especially beneficial for office workers or provincial residents, as it significantly reduces the burden of repeated visits. If the Korean medicine doctor conducts a thorough consultation and sufficiently reviews photos or symptom records, prescription is often possible. However, a core aspect of Korean medicine diagnosis is pulse diagnosis (脈診), which involves directly feeling the pulse, and abdominal diagnosis (腹診), which involves palpating the abdomen. Much of the pattern identification (辨證) information—such as spleen deficiency (脾虛), blood stasis (瘀血), and phlegm-fluid retention (痰飮)—is confirmed through palpation. Non-face-to-face consultations may miss this, so the risk of misdiagnosis increases slightly for patients with complex constitutions or underlying conditions. At first, I thought, 'Non-face-to-face herbal medicine? Is that really possible?' But in practice, when enough consultation time is given and supplemented with videos taken by guardians or patients, many people see good results. However, for those with severe rebound weight gain or a long history of Western medication, an in-person visit is recommended. Since it varies by situation, the wisest approach is to consult first and then determine whether non-face-to-face is appropriate.