Legal issues in telemedicine

The health care industry is in the process of addressing the problems that may arise from the development and implementation of telemedicine, including legal issues. Those issues include licensing of providers, confidentiality and privacy of patient information, and legal liability issues. The concerns expressed about licensing are addressed in legislation before the Michigan legislature. The technical aspects arising from concerns regarding privacy and confidentiality and legal liability issues have been recognized to exist as well. The following discussion will seek to highlight these issues to facilitate further analysis of them.