On 30 May 2016 a bill on telemedicine (the “Bill“) was submitted to the lower house of the Russian Parliament for consideration introducing a new form of provision of medical services in Russia – telemedicine (Bill No. 1085466-6 “On Introducing Amendments to the Federal Law “On the Fundamentals of Public Health Protection in the Russian Federation” and Article 10 of the Federal Law “On Personal Data”).
The Bill was drafted by representatives of the Internet community, including the Internet Development Institute, the Development of Internet Initiatives Fund and Yandex, a Russian internet search engine.
Under the Bill medical services will be allowed to be provided through the use of telemedicine technologies, i.e. with the help of means of communication.
The Bill provides that telemedicine may be carried out in two forms:
- Remote interaction among healthcare professionals on medical issues;
- Remote interaction between a healthcare professional and a patient for healthcare delivery.
Telemedicine will require identification of all the participants of the information exchange – healthcare professionals and patients or their legal representatives. It will be also needed to obtain separate informative consents from patients in electronic form.
The Bill itself has a frame nature. It does not provide for exact rules on remote interaction or a list of pathologies which may be covered by telemedicine. These issues will be subject to separate regulations.
We will carefully monitor the progress of the Bill and will post updates.