National rules advised for online medicine

Two medicolegal authors say growth in the field is outstripping states' oversight abilities.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. Aug. 12, 2002.

Policy-makers should enact a national regulatory framework to provide professional and legal guidance to physicians and ensure medicine is practiced online safely and effectively, according to an article in the July/August issue of Health Affairs.

The article argues that national oversight is necessary because the Internet, telemedicine and other emerging information technologies have outpaced the current state-by-state oversight of medical practice.

For example, state licensing boards find it difficult to discipline doctors in part because they lack jurisdiction over physicians who "virtually" cross state boundaries or because of the failure of many doctors who practice online to openly identify themselves, one of the article's authors, Arthur Derse, MD, said in an interview.

It also is impractical to expect every physician to seek licenses from all 50 states just so they can practice online, added Tracy E. Miller, an attorney who co-authored the piece.

As a result, the two authors urge development of national regulations for online medicine.

"The regulations are essentially not to do anything other than to support the medical examining boards of each state in trying to get jurisdiction over these people," said Dr. Derse, director of medical legal affairs at the Center for the Study of Bioethics and clinical professor of bioethics and emergency medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

"In other words, this is not about, 'Go out and get these doctors.' It's about helping the medical examining boards of the states," Dr. Derse said. [...]