While telemedicine is now common in the West, it is also now growing in Asia. Some Asian countries recently outlined new telemedicine regulations. For example, Taiwan’s MOH recently announced draft amendments to their initial telemedicine regulation of 2018. Originally, telemedicine was to be used only in special situations. Now, additional circumstances have been added like for people with terminal illnesses or reduced mobility, care for chronic diseases, etc. If a government authority has approved a medical institution for telemedicine, their doctors can also now perform telemedicine outside the medical institution.
Korea initially promulgated the use of telemedicine to combat the transmission of COVID. Now the Korean MOHW wants to implement telemedicine in addition to in-person doctor meetings. Many Korean medical clinics can now use telemedicine for elderly and chronic diseases like elevated blood pressure, diabetes, etc. Prescriptions can also be done via telemedicine too.
In another example, the Apollo hospital group in India has set up a telemedicine agreement with a UAE hospital called RAK hospital to provide health services to each hospital’s patients. In addition to telemedicine, other new healthcare systems are becoming more prevalent in Asia, including AI in healthcare, augmented reality, wearable healthcare technology, etc.
Written by: Ames Gross – President and Founder, Pacific Bridge Medical (PBM)
Mr. Gross founded PBM in 1988 and has helped hundreds of medical companies with business development and regulatory issues in Asia. He is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in the Asian medical markets. Mr. Gross has a BA degree, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia University.