The Legal Definition of Telemedicine
The Law on Medical Activity defines telemedicine as the distant provision of medical services, carried out by a professional of the medical field through information and communication technologies, aimed at exchanging information for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases, as well as for the continuing education of medical personnel, medical research and the evaluation of its results. This definition shapes the entire legal regime: who may be a subject of telemedicine, through which technologies, and for which purposes.
The definition embeds two directions — diagnosis-treatment and education-research. The first is patient-oriented and is the main focus of this page; the second serves the continuing development of medical personnel and scientific activity. In both cases the legal frame is uniform: the author of, and the person responsible for, the service is the professional, while the technology is only a means.
It matters that the law treats telemedicine within the framework of medical activity — it is not a separate profession but a form of medical service. All requirements applicable to medical activity therefore extend to telemedicine services: medical standards, ethical norms and qualification requirements.
Who Is Entitled to Conduct Telemedicine Consultations
Only a subject of independent medical activity has the right to receive a medical consultation using telemedicine. A recommendation to the patient on the basis of a consultation received through telemedicine may be given only by a subject of independent medical activity. Responsibility for the results of the medical service rendered to the patient in this form lies with the subject who directly issues the recommendation.
For the patient it is also important that the identity of the physician during the consultation is known and verifiable: the status of a subject of independent medical activity rests on a state certificate, so even in a remote service the qualification of the physician can be verified — the same protection an ordinary visit gives.
These norms underline the centre of responsibility: distance does not release the physician from liability and does not turn the platform into the true author of the service. For the patient, this means that a claim about the quality of the service will be directed precisely against the subject who issued the recommendation — not against the technical intermediary.