Coronavirus

Bolsonaro signs telemedicine bill

startups telemedicine

President Jair Bolsonaro signed a bill this Thursday regulating telemedicine in Brazil. The law, which defines telemedicine as “the exercise of medicine mediated by technologies to help assist, research, prevent illnesses and lesions and promote health,” will be in effect for the remainder of the Covid-19 pandemic. Professionals who opt to practice telemedicine must inform their patients of the limitations related to the practice.

The president vetoed two aspects of the bill. The original proposal stipulated that the practice be regulated in the future by the National Council of Medicine, but Mr. Bolsonaro argued it should be the jurisdiction of the legislative branch. He also vetoed the article that allowed for the adoption of digital prescriptions, which the president said could lead to a “sanitary risk for comparing the validity and authenticity of a digital document” to that of original prescriptions.

In February, editor Euan Marshall showed how, in a country where WhatsApp plays such a major role, telemedicine could be used to combat the spread of coronavirus.