The adoption of technologies in healthcare systems has been revolutionizing the delivery of medical services. Health information technologies such as telemedicine have increased the accessibility to care and developed new ways for clinicians to provide the services. The physician-patient interaction facilitated by telemedicine raises different levels of accountability to the care provider. This essay discusses physicians’ ethical practice in telemedicine, focusing on fidelity, competence, privacy, and confidentiality, as well as transparency and patients’ informed consent.
Physicians have the obligation to prioritize patients’ interests and providing competent care to their clients when applying telemedicine. They should take appropriate steps, including the disclosure of any concerns which can influence their roles when using the technology and take necessary actions to manage conflicts of interests (Chaet et al., 2017). The skills needed in the provision of telemedicine services vary at different levels of physicians-patients electronic interactions. Nevertheless, physicians must have suitable clinical qualifications and experience to guarantee enhanced patient outcomes (Chaet et al., 2017). Indeed, physicians’ expertise and focus on patients’ needs improve the quality of telemedicine services.
Privacy, confidentiality, transparency, and patients’ informed consent in telemedicine are vital in such settings as offices and hospitals. Significant potential risks to privacy exist when one electronically communicates personal health information. Therefore, physicians should ensure that the websites they use to deliver telemedicine services have the necessary mechanisms to protect individual information’s confidentiality (Chaet et al., 2017). They should also be transparent with the patients or prospective clients. Doctors practicing telemedicine have to obtain informed consent from the sick individual for any clinical service they deliver electronically (“Ethical Practice in Telemedicine,” n.d.). Clients’ privacy, confidentiality, and consent are fundamental, and patients need to be aware of medical issues and treatment options as well as distinctive telemedicine features.
Conclusively, telemedicine has significantly increased access to health care services. The technology facilitates patient-physician interaction regardless of the distance between them. The doctors who practice telemedicine to deliver care services have to adhere to ethical considerations as in a hospital or office settings. They should focus on patients’ needs and manage any conflict of interest and ensure that they have appropriate professional skills in addition to obtaining patients’ informed consent and guaranteeing privacy and confidentiality.
References
Chaet, D., Clearfield, R., Sabin, J. E., & Skimming, K. (2017). Ethical practice in telehealth and telemedicine. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 32(10), 1136–1140.
Ethical practice in telemedicine. (n.d). American Medical Association.