The current reforms of the health care system in Ukraine have brought about many innovations. For instance, telemedicine – an emerging branch of medicine making it possible for a doctor to reach a patient using electronic devices such as wearable body area networks (WBANs), mobile phones, and other information technology devices. Telemedicine is used primarily to help with chronic patient treatment and with observance of prescriptions, and to compare patient readings in real time. These achievements significantly help enhance the possibility of rapid response to a problem, at the same time cutting down the administrative inefficiency, and also help improve patient progress. However, as the downside, these mechanisms provide lucrative revenue for hackers.

 This article aims at studying the specifics of telemedicine in terms of law. For this purpose, the following objectives have been set: to analyse the history of development of telemedicine; propose the author’s own definition of telemedicine with due regard for current research; identify the pros of implementing telemedicine in the area of medical activities; identify the cons of implementing telemedicine in the area of medical activities.

The author applies general scientific and special methods of scientific cognition. General theoretical aspects of civil legal relations are studied using the dialectical method of cognition of legal reality. By using the method of system structural analysis, the author classifies civil legal relations in the medical activity area, and by applying the structural functional method – examines the elements of the structure of civil legal relations in the medical activity area. The formal logical method is used to study the legislation relating to contracts for the provision of medical services (aid) and its application practice, and also to define the concept of medical care, medical privacy, patient, and medical activity. The method of specific sociological research was used to study the court practice and identifyy the significance of civil legal relations for law application in the area of medical activity.

 Before introducing telemedicine, management of health care institutions and providers should be aware of the laws which regulate this area and understand how this occurs. Furthermore, they should consult experts to know which equipment may be necessary and to form a basic understanding of why particularly this equipment is needed in the first place.

Along with a limited amount of reimbursable services, there is also the issue of who of the doctors can practice telemedicine and who will give permission for this. Any provider which can bill for on-site services can also bill for telemedicine.

The patient’s consent is also required, and this means that doctors should obtain it before using telemedicine services. Failure to obtain the patient’s consent may result in doctors not getting paid.

 Taking into account the above, the following definition of telemedicine may be made: the use of telecommunications and information technologies for clinical and medical services in various parts of the country, including its remote areas, or such use to help doctors in an emergency to respond quickly and make a correct diagnosis.

Bibliography

Authored books

1. Katzenmeier K und Schlag-Slavu S, Rechtsfragen des Einsatzes der Telemedizin im Rettungsdienst (Springer 2010) (in German).

Edited books

2. Laskaridis, ‘Telemedicine and Liability’ in Kanellopoulou-Boti and PanagopoulouKoutnatzi, Bioethics Concerns (2014) 477–98 (in English).

Journal articles

3. Becker C and others, ‘Legal Perspectives on Telemedicine Part 1: Legal and Regulatory Issues’ (2019) 23 The Permanente Journal 18–293 (in English).

 4. Craig J and Patterson V, ‘Introduction to the Practice of Telemedicine’ [2005] 11(1) Journal Telemedicine and Telecare 3–9 (in English).

5. Dubchak L, ‘Telemedytsyna: suchasnyi stan ta perspektyvy rozvytku’ [‘Telemedicine: Current Situation and Development Prospects’] [2017] 1(147) Systemy obrobky informatsii 145–6 (in Ukrainian).

Websites

6. Λασκαρίδης Εμμανουήλ, ‘Civil liable persons by improperly fulfilled Telemedicine’ (Ιατρικό Δίκαιο, 18.12.2017) <https://www.iatrikodikaio.com/en/civil-liable-personsbyimproperly-fulfilled-telemedicine> (accessed: 10.01.2020) (in English).

7. ‘Vrach na svjazi: kak rabotaet telemedicina v mire i pochemu ona nuzhna v Ukraine’ [‘Doctor in Touch: How Telemedicine Works in the World and Why Ukraine Needs It’] (ain.ua, 19.11.2018) <https://ain.ua/2018/11/19/kak-rabotaet-telemedicina> (accessed:10.02.2020) (in Russian).

8. ‘Rekomendatsii po vprovadzhenniu telemedytsyny (shortlist)’ [‘Recommendations for the introduction of telemedicine (shortlist)’] (UADITM, 19.02.2019) <https://esemi. org/rekomendatsii-po-vprovadzhenniu-teleme> (accessed: 10.02.2020) (in Ukrainian).

9. ‘Telemedytsyna’ [‘Telemedicine’] (MedBrama) <https://medbrama.com> (accessed: 10.02.2020) (in Ukrainian).

10. ‘Telemedicina. Vozmozhnosti i razvitie v gosudarstvah-chlenah. Doklad o rezul’tatah vtorogo global’nogo obsledovanija v oblasti jelektronnogo zdravoohranenija’ [‘Telemedicine. Opportunities and Development in the Member States. Report on the Results of the Second Global E-Health Survey’] (Vsemirnaja organizacija zdravoohranenija, 2010) <https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/44497/9789244564141_rus. pdf;jsessionid=9F9C5AE3B0DA5F47C38759D9D9E410F6?sequence=4> (accessed: 10.02.2020) (in Russian).