REPORT OF BOARD OF COUNCILORS
BOC Report 1-A-06
Subject: Recently Adopted Opinions of Board of Councilors
Presented by: John W. Scroggins, MD, Chair
The Board of Councilors received information on new services offered in Texas and across the country that permit persons to contact a physician by telephone and obtain treatment. According to news reports, one such service is under investigation by California's medical board. To ensure ethics opinions are applicable even as technology changes, the board has modified its opinion on Internet Prescribing to encompass all prescribing where the discourse between patient and physician takes place solely by electronic means. The board emphasizes that care is delivered to patients only within a patient-physician relationship that is established according to currently accepted standards of medical practice. The newly modified opinion reads as follows:
ELECTRONIC PRESCRIBING. Although the development of telecommunications technology now makes it possible for physicians to diagnose, treat, or prescribe medications by means of the Internet or other telecommunication methods, such practice of medicine may be unethical. The use of electronic methods themselves impose limitations on communications that are not present in a traditional office setting. However, there may be situations in which such treatment may be appropriate, e.g., where an established patient-physician relationship exists between the physician or coverage physician and the individual requesting the prescription. If the individual seeking a prescription has never been a patient of the physician, (or the physician for whom the physician is providing coverage), it is not ethically appropriate for the physician to prescribe the requested medication without the benefit of a hands-on examination.
TMA House of Delegates: TexMed 2006
Last Updated On
June 24, 2010
Originally Published On
March 23, 2010