AMA posts new telehealth ethical guidance
The American Medical Association adopted new ethical guidance to clarify physicians’ responsibilities when interactions occur through telemedicine, compared to traditional patient interactions at a medical office or hospital.
The new guidelines permit physicians utilizing telehealth and telemedicine technology to exercise discretion in conducting a diagnostic evaluation and prescribing therapy within certain safeguards.
“Telehealth and telemedicine are another stage in the ongoing evolution of new models for the delivery of care and patient-physician interactions,” AMA Board Member Jack Resneck, MD, said in a statement. “The new AMA ethical guidance notes that while new technologies and new models of care will continue to emerge, physicians’ fundamental ethical responsibilities do not change.”
The new guidance on telehealth and telemedicine, approved at the AMA’s annual meeting Monday, was developed over the past three years by the AMA’s Council on Ethics and Judicial Affairs, and adopted by a vote of physicians from across the country.
The AMA said the evolution of telehealth and telemedicine capabilities offers increasingly sophisticated ways to conduct patient evaluations as technologies for obtaining patient information remotely continue to evolve and improve.
“Physicians who provide clinical services through telemedicine must recognize the limitation of the relevant technologies and take appropriate steps to overcome those limitations,” Resneck added. “What matters is that physicians have access to the relevant information they need to make well-grounded recommendations for each patient.”
The new guidelines also recognize that a coordinated effort across the profession is necessary to achieve the promise and avoid the pitfalls of telemedicine.
“Active engagement should support ongoing refinement of telemedicine technologies and relevant standards, while also promoting initiatives that will help make needed technology more readily available to all patients who want to use telemedicine services,” the AMA said.
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