The legal and ethical aspects of telemedicine. 3: Telemedicine and malpractice.

This paper reviews the difficulties raised by the need to obtain valid consent from telemedicine patients to the treatment that they receive and evaluates the legal principles that the courts will apply to an allegation of negligence brought against a teleconsultant or telemedicine service by a patient. While many of the processes that take place during a telemedical consultation will be unique, it is suggested that the legal principles that apply to the conventional, face-to-face, doctor-patient relationship are equally as valid in the context of the practice of medicine at a distance.