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Telemedicine, Pharmaceuticals and the License to Practice

By Janice G. Inman
July 31, 2007

Consumers of pharmaceutical products are increasingly looking to the Internet for cheaper medications, or a more convenient way to get them. Some drug purchasers are also going into cyberspace in order to get drugs without prescriptions. This trend in online prescription filling makes up just one part of the rise in telemedicine today, which can encompass not only Internet pharmaceutical sales, but also more longstanding practices, such as two doctors consulting by telephone over a difficult diagnosis, or a patient e-mailing a doctor from a remote location.

When a patient receives substandard care from a health care provider practicing telemedicine from a different state, the question is presented: Which state has jurisdiction over the transactions? The answer to this will depend on the two (or more) states involved and the circumstances of the case, but in the civil context it will generally come down to the usual questions of 'minimum contacts,' the parties' expectations, etc.

What happens, though, when local prosecutors wants to hold a practitioner in another state criminally liable for practicing medicine within their state? Does the patient's home state have the right to exercise jurisdiction over the health care provider who never sets foot in that state?

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