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38 Med. & L. 85 (2019)
Telehealth as a Double-Edge Sword: Lessons from Court Cases to Gain Understanding of Medico-Legal Risks

handle is hein.journals/mlv38 and id is 91 raw text is: Med Law (2019) 38:1:85-106 Medicine and Law World Association for Medical Law TELEHEALTH AS A DOUBLE-EDGE SWORD: LESSONS FROM COURT CASES TO GAIN UNDERSTANDING OF MEDICO-LEGAL RISKS Kar-wai Tong* Abstract: : Telehealth is a double-edge sword. With the advent of widely available and inexpensive telecommunication technologies, telehealth practices have grown prosperously in healthcare. At the same time, a number of scholarly works have already pointed out the potential medico-legal risks inherent in such practices. The author has conducted legal research to check the prevalence of medical negligence lawsuits in telehealth practices in Australia, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and the United States at the federal court level. This article discusses possible lessons learned from a few court cases identified, with an attempt to minimize the medico-legal risks of telehealth. Keywords: Medico-legal Risks; Medical Negligence; Medical Malpractice; Telehealth; Telemedicine; Court Cases Introduction Legal concerns were ever considered the invisible barriers to the development of telehealth(1). Since the first use of telemetry in the space-flight schemes in the United States (US) in the last century , telehealth has grown at a pace consistent with the technological advancement to meet the healthcare needs(3). Legal considerations are currently less invisible, as telehealth laws have been enacted in some jurisdictions and there are legal disputes in this new mode of healthcare brought to court. In this article, the author reviews the diverse ranges of terminologies and definitions of telehealth, gives a very brief of its legal concerns, and tries to take a snapshot of the current picture of medical negligence claims involving telehealth practices in a few selected * Doctor of Juridical Science, Enrolled Barrister and Solicitor (New Zealand, non- practicing), Legal Practitioner (New South Wales, non-practicing), City University of Hong Kong Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Kar-wai Tong. E-mail: tongkarwai@gmail.com 85

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