Information and communication technology (ICT) has streamlined the way medical services and para medical services are provided world over. E-health and telemedicine are examples of use of ICT for medical purposes.However, when technology is used for medical purposes, it gives rise to medico legal and techno legal issues. In United States, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act), etc are some of the laws that take care of medico legal and techno legal issues of e-health and telemedicine.
On the contrary, we have no dedicated e-health and telemedicine laws in India. Even essential attributes of these laws like privacy protection, data protection, data security, cyber security, confidentiality maintenance, etc are not governed by much needed dedicated laws.
However, numerous statues carry individual provisions that may be applicable to e-health and telemedicine activities in India. For instance, the e-governance and e-commerce related aspects of e-health and tele medicine may be governed by the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act 2000) that is the cyber law of India. All electronic contraventions and violations pertaining to e-health and tele medicine can be regulated b the IT Act 2000.
Similarly, privacy and data protection aspects in cyberspace pertaining to e-health are also governed by the IT Act 20000. Further, the Supreme Court of India has interpreted Article 21 of Indian Constitution as conferring a right to privacy upon all persons in India. Even in some cases the Supreme Court of India has held that patients have a right to privacy to protect their health related information except where non disclosure of such information is violating fundamental rights of others and is against public interest and public policy.
Even data security and cyber security aspects have been covered by the IT Act 2000 to some extent. The real problem is that these provisions that protect privacy, data protection, data security, etc are piecemeal efforts and they are not serving the purposes as required.
We need to have dedicated e-health laws and regulations in India that are presently missing. The sooner these e-health laws and regulations are formulated in India the better it would be for the larger interest of medical community and patients in India.
