Applications and Current Medico-Legal Challenges of Telemedicine in Ophthalmology

Daniela Mazzuca, Massimiliano Borselli, Santo Gratteri, Giovanna Zampogna, Alessandro Feola, Marcello Della Corte, Francesca Guarna, Vincenzo Scorcia and Giuseppe Giannaccare
Additional contact information
Daniela Mazzuca: Department of Surgical and Medical Sciences, University ‘Magna Græcia’ of Catanzaro, Viale Europa, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy
Massimiliano Borselli: Department of Ophthalmology, University ‘Magna Græcia’ of Catanzaro, Viale Europa, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy
Santo Gratteri: Department of Surgical and Medical Sciences, University ‘Magna Græcia’ of Catanzaro, Viale Europa, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy
Giovanna Zampogna: Department of Law, Economics and Human Sciences (DIGIES), Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria, Via dell’Università 25, 89124 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Alessandro Feola: Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania ‘Luigi Vanvitelli’, Via Luciano Armanni 5, 80138 Naples, Italy
Marcello Della Corte: Department of Surgical and Medical Sciences, University ‘Magna Græcia’ of Catanzaro, Viale Europa, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy
Francesca Guarna: Department of Surgical and Medical Sciences, University ‘Magna Græcia’ of Catanzaro, Viale Europa, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy
Vincenzo Scorcia: Department of Ophthalmology, University ‘Magna Græcia’ of Catanzaro, Viale Europa, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy
Giuseppe Giannaccare: Department of Ophthalmology, University ‘Magna Græcia’ of Catanzaro, Viale Europa, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 9, 1-16

Abstract: Background: The digital revolution is redesigning the healthcare model, and telemedicine offers a good example of the best cost-effectiveness ratio. The COVID-19 pandemic has catalysed the use of the telemedicine. The aim of this review is to describe and discuss the role and the main applications of telemedicine in the ophthalmic clinical practice as well as the related medico-legal aspects. Methods: 45 original articles and 5 reviews focused on this topic and published in English language from 1997 and 2021 were searched on the online databases of Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Sciences and Embase, by using the following key words: “telemedicine”, “privacy”, “ophthalmology”, “COVID-19” and “informed consent”. Results: Telemedicine is able to guarantee patient care using information and communication technologies. Technology creates an opportunity to link doctors with the aim of assessing clinical cases and maintaining high standards of care while performing and saving time as well. Ophthalmology is one of the fields in which telemedicine is most commonly used for patient management. Conclusions: Telemedicine offers benefits to patients in terms of saving time and costs and avoiding physical contact; however, it is necessary to point out significant limitations such as the absence of physical examinations, the possibility of transmission failure and potential violations of privacy and confidentiality.

Keywords: ophthalmology; telemedicine; eye; medico-legal; COVID-19; communication; privacy; clinical-practice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5614/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5614/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5614-:d:808820

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().