On the 25th, the Korean Medical Association held a debate on the direction of system improvement to mark the first year of the revival of medical advertisement preliminary review at the temporary hall.
The Constitutional Court judged that the government-led pre-deliberation system for medical advertisements in 2015 was unconstitutional. Since then, the pre-deliberation system for medical advertisements has been revived in September 2018 due to "private-led" self-deliberation review, and a year has passed.
The Medical Association deliberated 17,475 medical advertisements for a year from September last year to August this year. Among them, 11,894 Internet media deliberations were overwhelmingly conducted. The subject of pre-deliberation of Internet media is only when there are an average of more than 100,000 visitors per day. The website of medical institutions is not a media subject to prior deliberation.
According to the status of regional deliberations, the Seoul Metropolitan Government had the largest number of cases with 14,439, followed by Gyeonggi Province with 2,288. In terms of medical subjects, 4,649 cases were pediatrics, 3,289 cases were dermatologists, 1,559 cases were orthopedics, and 1401 cases were ophthalmologists.
Lee Se-ra, chairman of the Medical Advertising Review Committee of the Medical Association, pointed out the problem of blind spots in medical advertising deliberation. Although the types of medical advertisements such as YouTube and plastic surgery applications are diversifying, the subject of deliberation stipulated by the law is limited.
In fact, Internet media must have an average daily visitor of 100,000 or more to be subject to preliminary deliberation. The website of medical institutions is not subject to prior deliberation at all.
Chairman Lee Se-ra said, "We can advertise that there is a YouTube owned and operated by a medical institution, but we should not advertise that there is a YouTube privately owned by a medical institution in the contents of the medical advertisement."
"There is a problem of illegal medical advertisements in some plastic applications, but the current medical law does not discuss the subject of pre-deliberation of Internet media, which is an average of 100,000 visitors per day," he said. "Clear standards should be set."
Lawyer Choi Jeong-hee (Law firm Jeong & Partners) also pointed out, "Hazardous medical advertisements through new business platform companies like applications are on the rise, and harmful medical advertisements through medical institution websites are prevalent."
He said, "The number of media subject to preliminary deliberation has increased compared to before the revision of the law, but there is still a gap in preliminary deliberation," adding, "It is practically difficult to regulate through post-monitoring and follow-up."
The Ministry of Health and Welfare is also aware of the problem of medical advertisements on YouTube, plastic surgery apps, and SNS, and is considering various alternatives.
Park Jae-woo, an official at the Health and Medical Policy Division of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, explained, "If advertisements on YouTube, plastic surgery apps, and SNS contain contents that are not allowed by the medical law, they were illegal advertisements even during the legislative hiatus."
"The daily average of 100,000 people is also averaging for three months just before the previous year, and it is pointed out that it is not suitable for the current mobile environment," he said. "I think there is a limit to the essential solution to simply reducing 100,000 people to 50,000, 30,000, and 10,000." "We are considering other criteria that can replace quantitative standards, such as looking at the qualitative nature of applications," he said.
It is also considering producing a preliminary checklist to see if there is any conflict with the law before medical institutions are reviewed for medical advertisements.
"It is a way for medical institutions to find the desired advertising direction through a checklist on their own, so that they can find the conflict with the current medical law," said Park.
Writer: Yeyoung Jeon
(Picture from Unsplash)
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