Regulation or Roadblock?

Telemedicine is a tool that has been used to improve and extend healthcare for well over two decades.  In 2012, ten million Americans will have benefitted from such remote health services as teleradiology, teleICU and remote vital sign monitoring.  Technologies such as video conferencing, the Internet, mobile phones and machine-to-machine applications are all being used to deliver health services.

Rules and laws governing the practice of medicine are needed in order to protect patients and ensure the quality of care.  Telemedicine should not be exempt from such rules.  But neither should it be singled out as a separate practice.

Regulating agencies including state medical boards, the Food and Drug Administration and accrediting bodies need to constantly review and update the standards of care that are placed on medicine.  Our knowledge, the practice, and the tools used in healthcare constantly evolve and new lessons are being learned.  This changes the baseline of best practices.  For example, the history of medicine, from the use of stethoscopes to the deployment of video services has proven that we can no longer equate mere physical proximity to the patient with higher quality health care.

Interestingly, telemedicine often employs clinically superior tools than those normally used by physicians for in-person care such as electronic stethoscopes or digital otoscopes.  Clinical decision support systems, once considered electronic voodoo, are commonly used in every hospital and even mandated by the federal government as part of meaningful use.

Certainly there are some basic issues that need to be reassessed in light of rapidly changing medical evidence, new technologies and delivery innovations.  However, placing radically tougher requirements and significantly higher standards of care for the use of telemedicine will not necessarily ensure the quality of healthcare or protect patient’s lives.  In fact, such new regulations, often developed out of ignorance and fear, create serious roadblocks in the pathway to health reform.

(c) American Telemedicine Association