[THE INVESTOR] President Park Geun-hye on Aug. 4 visited a provincial nursing home to promote a pilot telemedicine program, her office Cheong Wa Dae said.

Her visit to the nursing home in Seosan, a city 151 kilometers south of Seoul, was the latest in the recent series of on-site tours to promote various government policies and evaluate whether they have been properly implemented.

Park met with those who receive around-the-clock care at the facility, their families and the nursing staff. During their talks, the president highlighted the need to expand telemedicine to help more people benefit from the Internet-based medical care platform.

In the nursing home more than 70 people have benefited from telemedicine. They suffer from various chronic illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes and dementia.

The president has also made sales pitches for her country’s telemedicine program during her overseas trips in recent years.

But the telemedicine program has faced strong opposition from local doctors, who have raised the possibility of misdiagnoses.

Others fear that some neighborhood clinics could be forced to shut down due to telemedicine.

As of April, some 278 facilities, including 73 military installations, 32 correctional facilities, 20 deep-sea fishing boats and 20 rural community centers, ran the pilot telemedicine program, according to government data.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)