Telemedicine in United Kingdom

Telemedicine in UK also known as cyber physician which a medical professional who does consultation via internet , treating the patients virtually, who will not ever meet face by face. This had been utilized by the armed forces and teaching hospitals offering the online consultation before let the patients decide whether to proceed with the treatment or not.



There are several issues that need to be considered in the telemedicine especially in United Kingdom. One of them is on about the confidentially of data. Traditionally, the patients will fill the form which regards the information on their disease but the telemedicine is not like that. Patients will exchange their data with the doctors through internet and it increase the number of players involved in exchanges of information and thereby extends the initial bilateral relationship between a healthcare professional and his patients. Implementing telemedicine will involve a certain number of players such as :

• The telemedicine service provider

• The person or institution who offers the telemedicine services or the different users

• The service users

• The person or institution who make use of the service provided (hospitals, insurance, companies, general practitioners , nurses, therapist, healthcare authorities and manager)

• The network provider

• The entity which provides the communication infrastructure (telecommunication network, ISDN) necessary to enable the flow of information between the different users or between the users and the service providers.

• Trusted parties/certification authority


In addition, telemedicine involves the transfer of patient’s data from one country to another country. So, to protect the confidentiality of data, the 1st principle of the OECD Privacy Guidelines provides that:
“member states should take reasonable and appropriate steps to ensure that transborder flows of personal data, including transit enough a member country, are uninterrupted and secure against unauthorized access , accidental modification or loss”

In Article 25 of the EC Data Protection Directive provides:
“The transfers of personal data to third countries may only take place if, one of the one hand, the transfer complies with the national provisions adopted pursuant to the Directive and if the country of destination ensures an adequate level protection”.


The adequacy level of protection shall be assessed in the light of any circumstances the transfer operation. To measure the degree of danger the flow presents, consideration will be given to the nature of the data, the purpose and duration of the proposed processing operations or operations, the country of origin and country of final destination. Besides that, in order to asses level of protection afforded in the third country, one will take account the rules of law, both general and sectoral in force in the third country in question and the professional rules and security measures which are complied with that country.

It can be concluded that a doctor owes duty of confidence in respect of information concerning his parent which he acquires in his capacity as doctor whether the information comes from the patient or from others. The obligation is widely regarded as one of the cornerstones of the doctor/patient relationship and this is reflected in a number of international ethical codes. National ethical codes also impose the same obligation to be observed by all doctors.

for more detail u can visit :

http://cybermedicine.co.uk/