The Federal Medical Council (CFM) seeks to make the emergency resolution approving the use of telemedicine during the health emergency due to COVID-19 now a permanent reality.
On 20 March last, the Ministry of Health authorized the use of telemedicine on a temporary basis during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was through the Official Journal of Union in Ordinance No. 467 that telemedicine's actions were established with “exceptional and temporary nature, with the aim of regulating and operatizing measures to address the international public health emergency”.
Previously in Brazil, Law No. 13.979 had been enacted on 6 February, and this provided for the need to regulate and carry out measures to address the public health emergency, with the aim of reducing the movement of persons exposed to COVID-19, as explained in the article.
In addition, continuing on the same path, the CFM in CFM resolution No. 1.643 / 2002 recognized the ethical possibility of the use of Telemedicine on an exceptional basis and as long as measures to address COVID-19 continue:
“Telemedicine's actions for distance interaction may include preclinic care, care support, consultation, monitoring and diagnosis, through information and communication technologies, within the scope of the SUS (Single Health System), as well as in complementary health and bathing,” says Article 2 of the resolution.
Article 5 mentions that physicians may, in the field of Telemedicine care, issue medical certificates or prescriptions in electronic means. However, Law No. 13.989 was subsequently amended, which removed some items such as the one that included the issuance of electronic prescriptions. This law was sanctioned by President Jair Bolsonaro on 15 April and decreed authorization in the use of telemedicine during the health emergency.
Now, the Federal Council of Medicine is developing a project that proposes to promote an ethical, technical and safe standard for the practice of telemedicine and which will be discussed in the coming months.
The First Vice-President of the CFM and Coordinator of the Special Commission, Donizetti Giamberardino Filho, mentioned that the first principle guiding the preparation of this new resolution focuses on the doctor-patient relationship: "This is the main value of the medical profession, and it is through this relationship that the necessary trust is established. The gold standard is face-to-face care. Telemedicine has to come as technology, with the main aim of facilitating access."
He also expressed the benefits that can be obtained through telemedicine: "you can, for example, transfer knowledge between medical centers, or even prevent the movement of people who travel 400 kilometers just to have a prescription. These are things that can help improve the collective health system and the SUS."
Another topic that has been studied since the Special Commission is medical ethics and the care of users' privacy and data. So, they suggest that prior to a remote consultation, a face-to-face is made to ensure a more effective diagnosis and prescription.
Currently, the CFM Special Commission of 11 specialists evaluates more than 2,000 proposals made by doctors in the public health and private services system.
