Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Med.
Sec. Regulatory Science
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1512337
This article is part of the Research Topic Digital Health Innovations for Patient-Centered Care View all 8 articles

Development of digital therapeutics in Hwa-byung treatment: exploring innovation potential in Korean medicine through practitioner survey

Provisionally accepted
Chan-Young Kwon Chan-Young Kwon *
  • Department of Korean Medicine, Dong-eui University, Busan, Republic of Korea

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Hwa-byung (HB) is a culture-bound anger syndrome prevalent in Korea. While clinical practice guidelines emphasize mind-body modalities (MBMs) and psychotherapies for HB treatment, their implementation in Korean medicine (KM) remains unexplored. Digital therapeutics (DTx) offers potential solutions for treatment delivery barriers. This study investigated current HB treatment practices among KM doctors and their perceptions on DTx implementation. Methods: A nationwide web-based survey of licensed KMDs (N=864) was conducted in South Korea (August-September 2024). The survey assessed HB treatment practices, utilization of MBMs and psychotherapies, and attitudes toward DTx. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: Most KMDs utilized conventional KM treatments (acupuncture 95.4%, herbal medicine 94.0%), while MBMs (26.2%) and psychotherapies (21.3%) were underutilized despite their recognized importance. Primary barriers included time constraints (65.8%) and insufficient knowledge (62.9%). Treatment typically required 15.6 ± 60.7 weeks with 21.6 ± 37.4 sessions. While DTx knowledge was limited (mean score 2.3 ± 0.9/5), most KMDs (70.6%) expressed interest in DTx development, with 65.4% willing to implement it in practice. The estimated appropriate cost for HB DTx was 24,441.5 ± 13,566.0 KRW per session. Conclusion: This study reveals a significant gap between guidelines and clinical practice in HB treatment, particularly in implementing MBMs and psychotherapies. The positive attitude toward DTx suggests its potential as a practical solution to bridge this gap by providing accessible, standardized delivery of evidence-based psychological interventions within existing clinical workflows. Future DTx development should focus on addressing identified barriers while maintaining alignment with KM principles.

    Keywords: Hwa-Byung, Korean medicine, digital therapeutics, mind-body modalities, Psychotherapy, Survey, clinical practice

    Received: 16 Oct 2024; Accepted: 16 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kwon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Chan-Young Kwon, Department of Korean Medicine, Dong-eui University, Busan, Republic of Korea

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.