Ethical practice in Telehealth and Telemedicine

This article summarizes the report of the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA) on ethical practice in telehealth and telemedicine. Through its reports and recommendations, CEJA is responsible for maintaining and updating the AMA Code of Medical Ethics (Code). CEJA reports are developed through an iterative process of deliberation with input from multiple stakeholders; report recommendations, once adopted by the AMA House of Delegates, become ethics policy of the AMA and are issued as Opinions in the Code. To provide enduring guidance for the medical profession as a whole, CEJA strives to articulate expectations for conduct that are as independent of specific technologies or models of practice as possible. The present report, developed at the request of the House of Delegates, provides broad guidance for ethical conduct relating to key issues in telehealth/telemedicine. The report and recommendations were debated at meetings of the House in June and November 2015; recommendations were adopted in June 2016 and published as Opinion E-1.2.12, Ethical Practice in Telemedicine, in November 2016. A summary of the key points of the recommendations can be found in Appendix A (online), and the full text of the opinion can be found in Appendix B (online).

[1]  Asynchronous virtual visits for the follow-up of chronic conditions. , 2014 .

[2]  Aaron C. T. Smith.  Older adults and technology use , 2014 .

[3]  Zia Agha,et al.  Patient satisfaction with physician-patient communication during telemedicine. , 2009, Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association.

[4]  Anca Cotet Grecu,et al.  Medical Regulation and Health Outcomes: The Impact of the Physician Examination Requirement , 2010 .

[5]  Deven McGraw,et al.  For telehealth to succeed, privacy and security risks must be identified and addressed. , 2014, Health affairs.

[6]  S. Greysen,et al.  Functional impairment and Internet use among older adults: implications for meaningful use of patient portals. , 2014, JAMA internal medicine.

[7]  J. Kvedar,et al.  Connected health: a review of technologies and strategies to improve patient care with telemedicine and telehealth. , 2014, Health affairs.

[8]  T. Miller,et al.  Between strangers: the practice of medicine online. , 2002, Health affairs.

[9]  Bonnie Perry Britton.  First Home Telehealth Clinical Guidelines: Developed by the American Telemedicine Association , 2003, Home healthcare nurse.

[10]  Marco D. Huesch,et al.  Privacy threats when seeking online health information. , 2013, JAMA internal medicine.

[11]  G. Doolittle,et al.  Providing Access to Oncology Care for Rural Patients via Telemedicine. , 2006, Journal of oncology practice.

[12]  E. Miller,et al.  The technical and interpersonal aspects of telemedicine: effects on doctor–patient communication , 2003, Journal of telemedicine and telecare.

[13]  I. Lee,et al.  Developing next-generation telehealth tools and technologies: patients, systems, and data perspectives. , 2010, Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association.

[14]  A. Risk,et al.  e-Health Code of Ethics (May 24) , 2000, Journal of medical Internet research.

[15]  Ateev Mehrotra,et al.  Analysis of Teladoc use seems to indicate expanded access to care for patients without prior connection to a provider. , 2014, Health affairs.

[16]  David A. Fleming,et al.  Telehealth ethics. , 2009, Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association.

[17]  Deborah Theodoros,et al.  A Blueprint for Telerehabilitation Guidelines , 2010, International journal of telerehabilitation.

[18]  E. Pellegrino,et al.  Professionalism, profession and the virtues of the good physician. , 2002, The Mount Sinai journal of medicine, New York.

[19]  David Ben-Arieh,et al.  The role of human factors in telehealth. , 2010, Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association.