선원 원격의료의 입법론적 개선방안에 관한 연구

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) established the Global Observatory for eHealth to review the benefits that ICTs can bring to health care and patients’ wellbeing. The Observatory is charged with determining the status of eHealth solutions, including telemedicine, at the national, regional, and global level, and providing WHO’s Member States with reliable information and guidance on best practices, policies, and standards in eHealth. As a member state of WHO, Korea has a duty to serve as the basis for coordinating both eHealth policies internationally and WHO’s activities on eHealth domestically. Even thought it is still under debate to extend telemedicine services to whole of Korean territory, providing telemedicine services with ocean-going ships which have no substantial external medical assistances, is a matter of human rights. International bodies such as ILO · IMO · WHO has noted the potential impact that telemedicine could have on health-care delivery for the benefit of seafarers. Telemedicine applications, above said international bodies are supposing, include two basic types of the interaction between the individuals involved—-be it health professional-to-health professional or health professional-to-patient. Additionally, the majority of telemedicine services may focus on diagnosis and clinical management, but not limited to those services. In the meantime, Article 34 of the Korean Medical Services Act defines telemedicine as medical assistances given by medical service providers such doctors and dentist to other medical providers who are not in the same geographical areas. For the benefit of clinical supports to seafarers, the Korean Seafarers Act(hereunder 'KSA') mandates doctors or medical supervisors shall be on board some designated vessels. It seems that, however, those provisions of the KSA do not have substantial effects on the promotion of health-care services on board ships. Korea has already ratified the Maritime Labour Convention 2006(hereunder 'MLC 2006'), and the MLC 2006 came into force in Korea from January 2015. This means not only the MLC 2006 becomes a domestic law of Korea by the Korean Constitutional Law, also Korean government is under international duties to make their law and regulations meet global standards concerning seafarers' health-care services. Even though Korea has already revised its Seafarers Act, provisions of the KSA concerning health-care services, especially telemedicine seems to be insufficient and the contents of those provisions are also unclear compared to the MLC 2006. In sum, it seems that providing telemedicine services to ocean-going vessel are not impossible by extended interpretation of Article 88 of the KSA. However, it is highly recommended that provisions of the KSA shall be revised to meet the mandatory rules of the MLC 2006.