ArticleJMIR public health and surveillance2024
Temporary Telemedicine Policy and Chronic Disease Management in South Korea: Retrospective Analysis Using National Claims Data.
Article in JMIR public health and surveillance, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Excess mortality and healthcare costs during the COVID-19 pandemic among patients with ten major chronic diseases in South korea: a nationwide analysis.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Observational
- Public perceptions of remote delivery of OTC medication counselling in community pharmacies in South Korea.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Article
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13 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSince its introduction, telemedicine for patients with chronic diseases has been studied in various clinical settings. However, there is limited evidence of the effectiveness and medical safety of the nationwide adoption of telemedicine.
objectiveThis study aimed to analyze the effects of telemedicine on chronic diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic under a temporary telemedicine policy in South Korea using national claims data.
methodsHealth insurance claims data were extracted over 2 years: 1 year before (from February 24, 2019, to February 23, 2020) and 1 year after the policy was implemented (from February 24, 2020, to February 23, 2021). We included all patients who used telemedicine at least once in the first year after the policy was implemented and compared them with a control group of patients who never used telemedicine. The comparison focused on health care use; the medication possession ratio (MPR); and admission rates to general wards (GWs), emergency departments (EDs), and intensive care units (ICUs) using difference-in-differences analysis. A total of 4 chronic diseases were targeted: hypertension, diabetes mellitus (DM), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and common mental disorders.
resultsA total of 1,773,454 patients with hypertension; 795,869 patients with DM; 37,460 patients with COPD; and 167,084 patients with common mental disorders were analyzed in this study. Patients diagnosed with hypertension or DM showed increased MPRs without an increase in GW, ED, or ICU admission rates during the policy year. Moreover, patients in the DM group who did not use telemedicine had higher rates of ED, GW, and ICU admissions, and patients in the hypertension group had higher rates of GW or ICU admissions after 1 year of policy implementation. This trend was not evident in COPD and common mental disorders.
conclusionsThe temporary telemedicine policy was effective in increasing medication adherence and reducing admission rates for patients with hypertension and DM; however, the efficacy of the policy was limited for patients with COPD and common mental disorders. Future studies are required to demonstrate the long-term effects of telemedicine policies with various outcome measures reflecting disease characteristics.
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