Telemedicine of the 21st century. What should medical organizations and patients expect?

On June 15, 2017, the Russian State Duma adopted in the first reading draft law No.174692-7 “On amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation on applying information and telecommunication technologies and implementing electronic forms of documents in public health” (hereinafter the “Draft Law”).

The Draft Law was developed in the course of implementing the priority project “Enhancing organizational processes of medical aid based on implementation of information technologies” (“Electronic public health”), and, as follows from the explanatory note, is aimed at creating legal grounds for using information and telecommunication technologies in protecting health of the public.

The Draft Law provides the following:

• Creating the Unified State Information System in public health with the aim of managing electronic document workflow and exchanging information in electronic form between entities of the public health system;
• Providing medical aid using telemedicine technologies through remote consultations of patients and doctors, as well as remote monitoring of a patient’s state of health;
• Issuing certificates and prescriptions for drugs and medical products in electronic form which will be certified by an encrypted certified electronic signature of a physician / medical assistant / obstetrician, with such prescriptions being sent directly to pharmaceutical organizations.

It follows from the Draft Law that the Russian Ministry of Health Care (Minzdrav) will need to elaborate certain legal acts, including:

• Regulations on the Unified State Information System in public health;
• Procedure for organization and conduct of consultations using telemedicine technologies, including rules for identifying the participants of remote interaction;
• Rules for information interaction of the participants for purposes of issuing prescriptions for medical products and drugs in form of electronic documents signed by an encrypted certified electronic signature of a physician / medical assistant / obstetrician.

The procedure for using informational technologies in medicine can be fully appreciated only after elaboration of the said legal acts; however, it is expected that the changes being introduced will be an important step forward in optimizing the provision of medical services to the public and will allow reducing health care expenses.

The draft Federal Law is scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2018, with the provisions of the Federal Law to the extent of prescriptions for drugs with narcotic or psychotropic substances in form of electronic documents taking effect starting January 1, 2019.

--------------------------------------

The article contains photograph www.med.uz