Medico Frontiers - Telemedicine

Social, Ethical and Legal issues in Telemedicine

Prof K Ganapathy, director of Apollo Telemedicine Network Foundation, is credited with the introduction of the first formal telemedicine centre in Aragonda village of Andhra Pradesh, linking it with Apollo hospital, Chennai. Dr Ganapathy is a senior consultant neurosurgeon and head division of stereotactic radiosurgery, Apollo hospitals, Chennai and president elect of Neurological Society of India. He is adjunct professor School of Electronics and Communication Engineering of Anna University and a visiting professor of Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Thiruvananthapuram and head, department of neurosurgery at Sundaram Medical Foundation, Chennai. Dr Ganapathy is also credited with carrying out the first procedure in stereotactic radiosurgery in South Asia in May 1995 at the Apollo Hospitals Madras. Currently, he has the largest experience of stereotactic irradiation in South Asia (about 525 cases).

Synopsis

Politics, organisation and human factors, not technology will be the reasons for failure of telemedicine systems. Telemedicine patients can ensure that the care they get is the care they want. Traditionally healthcare has taken into account social, cultural, ethnic beliefs, education, socio-economic group, geographical location and age assuming that the healer and the healed hail from the same region.

Access to telemedicine may eventually depend upon regulatory and legal issues which have not kept pace with technology. Issues being debated pertain to professional liability, credentialing, confidentiality and reimbursement, development of standards and telecommunications and infrastructure. Legal conundrums may arise with respect to data-protection, product liabilities and standards, freedom of information, personal and organisational responsibility, what bodies are responsible for legal guidance, cross-border transmission, tele-consultation equipment and so on.