The Argentine Senate passed a bill that will allow the regulation of the provision of telemedicine services throughout the country.
The regulation of the provision of health services through the use of technology was approved unanimously in the Argentine Senate. Now the initiative will pass through the Chamber of Deputies. The draft regulation unified the proposals of four senators, on the principles and scope of telehealth in the country.
The objective of this initiative is to “regulate the principles and scopes of telehealth as a modality for the provision of health services and training of the human resource, with the incorporation of the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and devices, to improve the accessibility and health conditions of the population”.
Senator Julio Cobos, author of one of the initiatives, explained how the initiative process went since the start of the social distancing measures in March: “When social and preventive isolation began by the month of March because of the pandemic we are still suffering, various initiatives were generated that sought to provide solutions and framework to the new paradigms. This happened with the education system, which is practically working electronically, and with many labor issues, with laws such as telework; and of course, the health issue was not exempt, and that's why today we are dealing with Telehealth's agreed project.”
The project presented seeks to define the characteristics and conditions under which telemedicine and telehealth must be implemented, and also intends to provide greater access to the health system for the population, to encourage technological development and connectivity.
Recently, both in the Senate and in the Chamber of Deputies, initiatives related to Telehealth have been proposed, such as the electronic prescription that has already been approved.The legislator stressed the importance of such laws and initiatives during the pandemic, and presented the definition of telehealth and telemedicine: "Telesalud is a broad concept and contains telemedicine, which is the exchange of medical information through some means of electronic communication, between two actors who are not located in the same space; while Telehealth is the health system as such, making use of ICTs, with special emphasis on preventive character. It includes a full range of activities that help the patient and the general population to be healthy: prevention, promotion, diagnosis, and treatment," he explained.
Senators recalled that technology applied in health through telemedicine or telehealth does not replace traditional medicine or health services in which patient contact is essential, however, they stressed that, in the current context of the pandemic, health care needed to be rethinked, so they see technology functioning as a complementary tool in the provision of health services.
Like the digital prescription law, the National Executive Power will be tasked with granting accreditations and keeping track and evaluation of processionals involved in the exercise of telehealth and telemedicine. In this way the teleconsultation mode will have the same validity as the traditional modality. In turn, patients should be informed about this modality and consent.
