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The era of long-distance healthcare is starting. One example is a long-distance healthcare system called "Touch Doctor" introduced by IT firm LG CNS on Wednesday. Using home devices, patients can measure their own blood pressure, blood sugar, electrocardiogram and fat mass and connect the devices to Touch Doctor, a computer monitor-like device, which will transmit the information to a professional nurse at a healthcare center via the Internet.
The heath manager will talk with the patients via Internet telephony, give them advice, and connect them with a medical center if their condition is not good. Over the past five months, LG CNS has provided 50 high blood pressure patients with "Touch Doctor" services in cooperation with the College of Medicine of Yonsei University. LG CNS said 24 percent of the patients had reached their target blood pressure in just eight weeks.
Many ideas in the long-distance healthcare system have already been commercialized. Samsung Electronics has recently developed and marketed a BioPC allowing patients to diagnose illnesses such as cancer and diabetes if they put a disk containing a freshly collected blood specimen into the computer.
For three months last year, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital test-ran "Ubiquitous Healthcare," a long-distance healthcare service system, for 30 diabetes and high blood pressure patients in Bundang.
The Ministry of Knowledge Economy will invest W250 billion (US$1=W1,100) in developing IT-related medical equipment and systems with a goal to join the group of top five countries of the world in this field by 2012. The Samsung Economic Research Institute said Korea's home healthcare market will be worth W1 trillion by 2012.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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