Telemedicine in India — A Legal Perspective

Telemedicine is the effective fusion of information and communication technologies (ICT) with medical science. Telemedicine has been recognised by the Government of India which includes formulating schemes and policies. Government has been working to bring a specific legislation for telemedicine. Presently, the laws applicable to telemedicine in India are the laws governing the medical profession, patient-doctor relationship and information technology.

With regard to laws relating to the medical profession, the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, Indian Medical Degree Act, 1916, Drugs and Cosmetic Act, 1940, Code of Ethics Regulations, 2002 and other statutes and rules framed there under regulate the practice of medicine by doctors. The law provides that any person registered with the State Medical Council or Medical Council of India is eligible to practice as a medical practitioner in India.

For covering online services, it is important to jointly interpret and understand the aforementioned statutes and rules and the Information Technology Act, 2002 (“IT Act”). The IT Act contains provisions safeguarding the security and privacy of information exchanged and shared over means recognised under the IT Act. All companies registered under technology or providing technology services are governed by the IT Act.

The laws applicable to medical practitioners while practicing medicine are the same laws which are applicable to medical practitioners while practicing medicine and providing services through telemedicine.

The Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945, specify the essentials of a valid prescription, which require such prescription to be in writing and be signed by the person giving the prescription, in addition to other details pertaining to the professional information of the person and the drugs being prescribed. For the purpose of telemedicine, the requirement pertaining to the prescription being in writing and signed by the person providing such prescription can be satisfied by complying with the provisions of IT Act recognising electronic documents and digital signatures.

The IT Act regulates and authenticates electronic documents. The IT Act stipulates that, where there is a requirement under law, for a document to be in writing or typewritten or in printed form, such requirement shall be deemed to have been satisfied if the information is rendered in electronic form and made accessible so as to be usable for subsequent reference. Further, an electronic record can be authenticated by the subscriber by affixing a digital signature on such record. Digital signatures (Section 5 of the IT Act) are recognised under law as substitutes for written signatures.

The practice of telemedicine has been picking up in India over the last few years. Indian medical association (IMA having more than 250,000 members) declared March 24th as IMA National Telemedicine Day.

To conclude, while practicing medicine and providing services through telemedicine, the medical practitioner should use the same approach as in his face-to-face practice, which is compliant with all the statutes, regulations, guidelines and rules that generally apply to practice by medical professionals.

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Telemedicine in India– A Legal Perspective