[Liability of the consulting physician]

Problems of the malpractice law in telemedicine was hardly discussed until now. The consulting doctor in the centre is consulted by a "primary treating physician" to take part in treating the patient directly or indirectly. In the doctor's establishment, the consulting doctor is usually not the assistant of the "primary treating physician" and is therefore not legally responsible by contract. In hospital, the legal responsibility depends on the hospital contract-whether it is total or split. In the case of a total contract, all doctors involved in treating the patient are assistants of the hospital. In the case of a split contract, the consulting doctor has his own contract with the patient. With this premise the consulting doctor is also legally responsible for damage through a third party. In the field of communication and organization mistakes, all doctors that are involved might be legally responsible. From the view of the criminal law, the responsibility of the consulting doctor is considered regarding physical injury resulting from negligence, manslaughter through culpable negligence and denial of assistance. As the boundaries for the duty of assistance are not locally restricted but drawn with the criteria of reasonableness, telemedicine would lead to an enormous extension of the people who have the duty to help.