Tough Regulations on Telecare Services
"Samsung Health," a health record management application for smartphone users from Samsung Electronics, surpassed 500 million downloads globally.
However, the remote medical services that Samsung Health provides and are generally available in overseas countries are not provided in Korea. Korean smartphone users are being discriminated against because of regulations on remote medical services in Korea.
According to Samsung Electronics and Google Play Store on August 5, Samsung Health recently passed the milestone of 500 million downloads. The app was released with the Galaxy S3 in 2012 under the name "S Health" which changed to "Samsung Health" last year. The application provide its services in more than 70 languages in about 190 countries around the world. Earlier, the application recorded 100 million downloads in 2015 in three years since its launch.
The application installed on Samsung smartphones as a basic item supports both the Android OS and iOS so can be downloaded from the Apple App Store as well as the Google Play Store. Samsung Health that records health information such as initial weight, blood pressure and blood sugar and how much users exercise is now evolving into a comprehensive health care service through which users can obtain various health information and receive health advice from experts.
Samsung Health launched the "Ask an Expert" Service in the UK in July after the US and India last year. This service allows you to see your doctor 24 hours a day in real time. Lately, Samsung added the Symptom Checker, an interactive AI chatting service that allows users to check their symptoms in the US by partnering with British digital healthcare startup Babylon.
However, although Samsung Health is gaining in much popularity around the world, there is no medical counseling service by medical experts available overseas in Korea where remote medical services are not possible. A revision of the Medical Law which permits remote medical treatment was proposed at the National Assembly about 10 years ago but even a debate on the matter has not even started yet due to opposition from the medical world.