Icheon City Launches 'Visiting Remote Collaborative Medical Service'

[Anchor]

Moving on to metropolitan area news. Icheon City, Gyeonggi Province, has launched a "visiting remote collaborative medical service" tailored for elderly residents in rural areas who find it difficult to visit hospitals due to limited mobility.

Reporter Yu Yeong-su has the details.

[Reporter]

This is a senior center in Janghowon-eup, Icheon, Gyeonggi Province.

After a nurse measures blood pressure and blood sugar levels, a remote video conferencing system is connected so that a doctor can check the health status of the elderly in real time.

[Park Hyeong-guk / Doctor, Icheon Public Health Center: You don't have any stomach pain, do you? Any heartburn or anything like that?]

[Kang Myeong-won / Janghowon-eup, Icheon City: No, I don't have heartburn.]

This is the remote collaborative medical service introduced by Icheon City last month.

The system involves nurses and dedicated public health officials visiting senior centers to assist elderly residents with video consultations, and then directly delivering the prescribed medications to their homes after the consultation.

[Heo Won / Jangbuk Public Health Practice, Icheon City: Public transportation is very inconvenient, and since the elderly are advanced in age, traveling itself is a major challenge. Therefore, they either have to rely on their children for help or set aside a specific day to visit a hospital.]

The service is currently being operated primarily in the southern regions of Icheon City, where medical accessibility is relatively low.

[Kang Myeong-won / Janghowon-eup, Icheon City: Those aspects are all great. Being able to do this while sitting right here. Without having to take a car outside, just sitting here at the community center.]

[Park Dong-yeo / Janghowon-eup, Icheon City: I am so grateful, and my mind feels relieved and good. Wow, receiving treatment right here nearby without even going to the hospital feels truly wonderful.]

A total of seven medical personnel, including doctors and nurses, are deployed for the remote collaborative medical service.

[Song Su-seok / Mayor of Icheon: Starting step-by-step from rural areas, we will expand and develop an integrated remote collaborative medical system across the entire city of Icheon for elderly residents with limited mobility.]

Icheon City plans to provide the service every Tuesday.

(Video by: In Pil-seong)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.