비대면진료와 전자처방전의 관계 및 법제 개선방향에 관한 고찰

Abstract

After the outbreak of COVID-19 in Korea on February, 2020, the Ministry of Health and Welfare temporarily permitted non-face-to-face treatment between doctors and patients, a form not permitted by the Medical Act, in order to block the spread of infection between medical staff and patients. The most representative form was telephone consultation and prescription. Since then, on December 5, 2020, through the revision of the Act on the Prevention and Management of Infectious Diseases, a new regulation on the temporary permission of non-face-to-face treatment in case of a serious infectious disease crisis was newly established and is being implemented. Regarding the issuance of prescriptions during non-face-to-face treatment, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has also instructed that the prescription be sent to the pharmacy designated by the patient by fax or e-mail, including the patient's phone number. However, the Korean medical law has already introduced the electronic prescription system, so if the issuance of prescriptions during non-face-to-face treatment is used as an electronic prescription, the electronic prescription can be directly sent from the medical institution to the pharmacy, which can bring convenience and efficiency. Nevertheless, in Korea, the electronic prescription system has not been activated due to the involvement of private companies and the burden of costs such as fees. In the case of Japan, on April 30, 2020, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare issued and distributed the second edition of the guideline for the operation of electronic prescriptions, and on July 17, 2020, in order to further extend the health of the people and provide efficient medical and nursing services, The public institution-led electronic prescription system, which aims to build a platform to integrate and utilize big data in health, medical care, and nursing care using ICT, has been declared to be nationwide by the summer of 2022. Japan aims to improve the quality of medical services, such as central management of biographies, and to improve the work efficiency of medical institutions and pharmacies, and to build a health care big data system through complete digitalization of prescriptions. In this paper, after examining the details of the establishment of e-prescription in Japan, the implications for the e-prescription system in Korea are reviewed. Furthermore, I would like to review what the direction of improvement of the Korean legal system about e-prescription should be.