• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.3-33
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• 2020

Telemedicine can be defined as "medical activities performed remotely by medical personnel using information and communication technology." So far, many scholars in Korea have understood that only telemedicine between medical personnel is allowed and telemedicine between medical personnel and patients is prohibited based on Article 34 of Medical Service Act. However, Article 34 is only a restriction on the performing place of medical profession, not a prohibition on telemedicine itself. And, there are no regulations prohibiting telemedicine under the korean medical law. So, it is difficult to say that telemedicine is generally prohibited under the korean medical law, apart from the health insurance medical treatment benefit standards. However, there is controversy in interpretation regarding the meaning of "direct diagnosis" in Articles 17 and 17-2 of Medical Service Act. The Constitutional Court of Korea interpreted this as "face-to-face diagnosis", while the Supreme Court of Korea interpreted it as "self diagnosis". In light of the dictionary meaning of 'direct' and the interpretation of related medical law regulations, I think the Supreme Court's interpretation is valid. Although "direct diagnosis" does not mean "face-to-face diagnosis", the concept of "diagnosis" implies "principle of face-to-face diagnosis". In addition, "non-face-to-face diagnosis" are only allowed to supplement "face-to-face diagnosis", so the problems caused by "non-face-to-face diagnosis" can be fully overcome. In the end, the limit of telemedicine is how faithful the diagnosis was.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.3-33
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• 2022

In relation to telemedicine in Korea's medical law, there are Articles 17, 17-2, and 34 of the Medical Act. Since 'direct examination' in Articles 17 and 17-2 of the Medical Act can be interpreted as 'self-examination' rather than 'face-to-face examination', it is difficult to see the above regulation as a regulation prohibiting telemedicine. Prohibiting telemedicine only with the concept of medical examination or the 'principle of face-to-face treatment' is against the principle of "nulla poena sine lege"(the principle of legality). However, in order to qualify as 'examination', it must be faithful enough to replace face-to-face examination, so issuing a medical certificate or prescription after a poor examination over the phone is considered a violation of the Medical Act. In that respect, the above regulation can be said to be a regulation that indirectly limits telemedicine. On the other hand, most lawyers interpret that telemedicine between medical personnel and patients is completely prohibited based on Article 34, and the Supreme Court recently ruled that such telemedicine is not permitted even if there is a patient's request. However, this interpretation is not only far from the legislative intention at the time when telemedicine regulations were introduced into the Medical Act of 2002, but also does not match the needs of reality or the legislative trend of foreign countries. The reason is that telemedicine regulations are erroneously legislated. The premise of the legislation is wrong, and there are considerable problems in the form and content of the legislation. As a result, contrary to the original legislative intent, telemedicine was completely banned. In foreign countries, it is difficult to find cases where telemedicine is completely banned and criminal punishment is imposed for it. In order to fundamentally solve the problem of telemedicine, Article 34 of the Medical Act needs to be deleted.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.3-23
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• 2021

Telemedicine is a field of medicine in which medicine doctors who are in remote distance can treat the patients using audio, video devices which can help the diagnosis. In medicine, even the face-to-face diagnosis and treatment is the traditional way, the telemedicine could provide the convenient way for the patients in long distance, disabled or anyone who want to be stay ones' home. But telemedicine has the task to maintain the quality of medical cares compare with the traditional medicine. Among the several types of telemedicine, the specific type telemedicine in which the medicine doctors examine, diagnosis and do the prescription to the remotely distanced patients could be defined tele-prescription. Under The Medical Service act, it is unclear that teleprescription could be allowed. The Medical Service Act has introduced the specific clause for the prescription. That clause includes the duty of patients who have to receive the prescriptions directly from medical doctors. Under this clause, the constitutional court had decided the tele-prescription was illegal, but the supreme court has been decided tele-prescription could be legalized under the certain circumstances. But the other supreme court decided the tele-prescription was illegal under the article 34 of presenting Medical Service Act. So to understand the interpretations of Supreme court and Constitutional court decisions for the cases of prescription via telephone, we need to understand the history and presented reasons for the revision of prescription clause and also need to understand the other related clauses in the same act. In conclusion, To consider the values of telemedicine should be the level with the ordinary treatments, It is reasonable to interpret that the presenting Medical Service Act only legalize the telemedicine between doctor to doctor and which is regulated by the telemedicine clause.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.139-145
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• 2023

When a doctor examines a patient in a hospital, the doctor directly checks the patient's condition and conducts a face-to-face diagnosis through dialogue with the patient. However, it is often difficult for doctors to directly treat patients. Recently, several types of telemedicine systems have been developed. However, the systems have lack of capabilities to observe heart disease, neck condition, skin condition, inside ear condition, etc. To solve this problem, in this paper, an interactive telemedicine robot system with autonomous driving in a room capable of visual examination and auscultation of patients is developed. The developed robot can be controlled remotely through the WebRTC platform to move toward the patient and check a patient's condition under the doctor's observation using the multi-joint robot arm. The video information, audio information, patient's heart sound, and other data obtained remotely from patients can be transmitted to a doctor through the web RTC platform. The developed system can be applied to the various places where doctors are not possible to attend.