The role of Korean Medicine in the post-COVID-19 era: an online panel discussion part 1 – Clinical research

BACKGROUND: As it is predicted that large-scale viral diseases will occur more frequently in the future, there are voices that Korean Medicine (KM) community need to discuss the role of KM and what to prepare to play a significant part of national disease control system in the post-Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) era. METHODS: This paper summarizes the edited highlights of an online video meeting by Google meet on 23 April 2020, organized by the Korean Medicine Convergence Research Information Center. Six speakers who are experts in respiratory medicine, cardiology and neurology, gastroenterology, and neuropsychiatry presented what KM community should prepare for the future acute infectious disease outbreaks by learning from experiences of KM teleconsultation center for COVID-19. RESULTS: Unlike in the past infectious disease outbreaks, KM community has played a bigger part in COVID-19 pandemic in spite of regulatory challenges via activities of KM teleconsultation centers. Telemedicine in pandemic could be more actively utilized in light of the present KM teleconsultation center’s achievements. Data from KM teleconsultation centers would be useful to establish an evidence-base for effectiveness and safety of KM treatments if they are properly collected and analyzed. It might be beneficial to adopt an integrative medicine approach in response to acute viral infectious diseases in the future but the inclusion of KM in the national disease control system is required. CONCLUSION: The present online discussion suggested possible directions of clinical research in KM for the post-COVID-19 era.