The Chilean Senate seeks to promote a project that regulates and extends telemedicine, given the increase in its use during the pandemic.
The Senate Health Commission in Chile is promoting a motion that seeks the regulation and extension of the telemedicine modality in medical care. The project would authorize health providers to implement care through telemedicine.
“Any health provider, whether public or private; or any professional or worker who, for any reason, must serve the public or is linked to the provision of health care, may provide care through telemedicine, keeping records of these benefits, in the same terms as face-to-face care, ”explains the Project.
During the last session, the Health Commission unanimously approved the proposal, however, they also agreed to "formulate consensual indications, in order to speed up the processing." The Ministry of Health (Minsal), for its part, will present indications to improve the wording.
During the online session, experts in public health and specialists in Artificial Intelligence in Health were invited. The guests recognized the telemedicine modality as a type of care that must continue after the pandemic, and also emphasized its usefulness when shortening waiting lists and accepting more specialists in remote regions. They even mentioned that around 50% of face-to-face services could be done remotely without any problem.
However, they also recognized the challenges of confidentiality and privacy; digital literacy of users; Internet access and digitization of services; care of medical data, among others.
