Legal and Ethics
Legal and ethical issues surrounding telemedicine practices are raised by
Lateef8, especially around the issue of record keeping by the medical
person providing the consultation and the remote person seeking advise
and providing treatment. Records of equivalent quality of the telemedicine
consultation must to be kept by both personnel, and be auditable in the
same manner as in a hospital or GP's face-to-face consultation.
Information passed whether it be data, pictures, video or voice must be of
a high enough quality so that there is no misunderstanding of the
information, and necessary information must be stored for possible future
assessment / audit, or as used for on-going treatment once the patient
reaches a medical facility.
Other issues touched upon include the areas of consent for treatment,
medical personnel acting beyond their ability or legal authority, and poor
understanding or practical knowledge of the system being utilised.