Structural and legal implications of e-health

Web and attendant e-Commerce phenomena are irretrievably at odds with the traditional structure and hence legal regulation of health delivery. E-Health delivers healthcare information, diagnosis, treatment, care, and prescribing of drugs in a nonlinear, nonhierarchical manner that encourages patients to "enter" the system at an infinite number of points, thus defying current regulatory constructs. Similarly, e-Commerce fundamentals such as disintermediation and disaggregation result in medical information being delivered through unfamiliar channels, creating immensely difficult questions for health lawyers.