Post by account_disabled on Mar 13, 2024 13:28:32 GMT 5
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization classified the disease caused by the new coronavirus, Covid-19, as a pandemic. This means that the virus is circulating on all continents and there are oligosymptomatic cases, which makes identification difficult. The new coronavirus is part of the family of viruses that cause respiratory infections, having been identified on December 31, 2019 after cases were registered in China[1]. Telemedicine — a resource that allows health care to be practiced remotely, using technology for contact between patient and doctor — is an efficient method to help combat the pandemic. However, Brazil lacks modern and efficient regulation. Outdated, Resolution 1,643/2002 of the Federal Council of Medicine, currently in force, defines the provision of services via telemedicine as being “the exercise of medicine through the use of interactive audiovisual and data communication methodologies, with the objective of assistance, education and health research.”
Brazil is facing a public health B2B Lead emergency and, in light of Law 13,979/2020, which deals with measures to deal with the emergency resulting from the new coronavirus, telemedicine is legally authorized in its entirety to respond to the situation. It is an important method that can help prevent the spread and transmission of the virus by avoiding the overload of public and private health services due to unnecessary visits to hospitals and emergency rooms.
In any case, Ethics and Law have not yet exactly outlined the safe path to follow, especially in relation to privacy, information security, professional secrecy and the doctor's responsibility regarding the storage and sharing of sensitive health data. With the imminent entry into force of the General Personal Data Protection Law (Law 13,709/2018, the LGPD), which will occur on August 15, 2020, and in view of Law 13,979/2020 and Ordinance 356/2020 of the Ministry of Health, this article seeks to outline some reflections on data protection in telemedicine in times of the new coronavirus, without any intention of exhausting the topic.
1. Contextualizing telemedicine
Under Law 3,268/1957, the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM) is responsible for regulating professional medical practice and ensuring good medical practice in the country. CFM Resolution 2,217/2018, which approved the most recent Code of Medical Ethics, in force since April 30, 2019, establishes in paragraph 1 of its article 37 that “remote medical care, in the form of telemedicine or of another method, will take place under regulation by the Federal Council of Medicine”. And as already noted, although outdated, Resolution 1,643/2002, from the same authority, defines and regulates the provision of services via telemedicine. This is because it prohibits the entire exercise of telemedicine, allowing, for now, only videoconferencing during the procedure, so that the doctor can obtain opinions from colleagues, in an action always carried out with the presence of a doctor at the patient's side.
