Civil Liability of Telemedicine in Iranian Law

Abstract

Telemedicine or telemedicine refers to the use of information and communication technology to provide health care, services, and support to the patient when there is a geographical distance between the patient and the treatment team. Telemedicine is different from traditional medicine (medicine through the usual and usual means of society). Considering its use for treatment and other issues such as medical education and consultation between different parts of a country and sometimes beyond a country, it clearly shows and requires that a competent law be regulated and its legal gaps be resolved at the national and transnational levels (such as the issue of resolving conflicts of jurisdiction). After conducting research, we realized that in Iran, we do not have any codified law that specifically addresses legal challenges in this field, and they resolve issues by using other existing laws, making comparisons, and making suggestions. When medical services are provided in the usual way, it is easy to identify the relationships between patients and service providers. However, in the provision of services via telemedicine, we see the direct or indirect involvement of at least one doctor who is not only not a member of the medical center, but is also present in a distant region and sometimes in another country. Is there a contractual or non-contractual relationship between the patient and the doctor in question? Since the doctor-patient relationship is a contractual relationship, under the title of a treatment contract; to resolve conflicts regarding jurisdiction in Iran and the law governing it, the law of the place of conclusion of the contract, the law of the common residence of the parties, the law of the place of performance of the obligation, the law of the state of the parties or the law agreed upon by the parties can be considered as governing it.