About a year ago, The American Medical Association’s (AMA) ethics council made an effort to agree on the addition of ethical guidelines geared towards physician-patient telemedicine visits. When a Texas physician raised concerns over the guideline’s indication that the initial face-to-face visit may be done online instead of in-person to first establish the physician-patient relationship, the guideline adoption was postponed until later in the year.
According to an article from Mobi Health News, the AMA will be meeting in Chicago for it’s annual conference next week and the addition of the guidelines will be discussed again given the popularity of telemedicine in healthcare today.
In an executive summary for the report that precedes the guidelines, the AMA’s Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs says, “As in any mode of care, patients need to be able to trust that physicians will place patient welfare above other interests, provide competent care, provide the information patients need to make well-considered decisions about care, respect patient privacy and confidentiality, and take steps to ensure continuity of care. Although physicians’ fundamental ethical responsibilities do not change, the continuum of possible patient-physician interactions in telehealth/telemedicine give rise to differing levels of accountability for physicians. All physicians who participate in telehealth/telemedicine have an ethical responsibility to uphold fundamental fiduciary obligations and to protect privacy and confidentiality.”
In addition to stating the guidelines, the report also includes recommendations geared towards physicians practicing telemedicine. Some of these recommendations including maintaining the same professionalism as in-person visits, adapting the informed consent procedures so they are conveyed the same via telemedicine and “…[promoting] continuity of care for the patients they see via telemedicine technologies and…[working] with professional organizations (like the AMA) to help improve telemedicine services and develop clinical standards.”
If you are interested in discussing how a telemedicine doctor network can help your healthcare organization, please click below.