Digital health technology-specific risks for medical malpractice liability
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The global digital health market is worth approximately 300 billion USD1 and is predicted to grow by up to 25% this year. Consequently, medical professionals are increasingly required to use digital technologies such as telehealth platforms, AI-driven clinical decision-making tools, digitally enabled surgical tools, mHealth technologies, or electronic health care records (EHR), as part of care delivery. These technologies hold clear benefits for enabling more efficient, modern care delivery however there are significant challenges to implementation, including when and how to use them, how to enable an accurate medical diagnosis in a virtual environment, interpretation and relevance of novel data points from digital devices, the potential for automation bias, appropriate utilisation of and engagement with digital disease management platforms and continuity of care in a digital world. Several of these issues have become apparent through the pandemic due to the hasty deployment of novel technologies as ‘bolt-on’ solutions to address standalone challenges in healthcare delivery, without consideration of the broader healthcare architecture.
The majority of practicing clinicians are not sufficiently trained in how to safely integrate digital health technologies into the clinical workflow before encountering such technologies in practice. The introduction of digital health technologies may therefore represent a risk for medical error and subsequent malpractice liability. Medical malpractice is frequently defined as a physician’s failure to comply with customary medical practice,2 however the application of this standard in the context of digital health is challenging. What are the accepted norms for history and examination during a telehealth consult? How should these be documented on electronic systems? When is it safe to offer digital first solutions for disease management? What is the custom for clinicians to ensure continuity of care? If there is a medical error, should the error be attributed to the clinician or the artificial intelligence-based clinical decision-making system?
In this article we identify and discuss technology specific risks for malpractice liability arising from the rapidly growing use of digital health technologies.
The majority of practicing clinicians are not sufficiently trained in how to safely integrate digital health technologies into the clinical workflow before encountering such technologies in practice. The introduction of digital health technologies may therefore represent a risk for medical error and subsequent malpractice liability. Medical malpractice is frequently defined as a physician’s failure to comply with customary medical practice,2 however the application of this standard in the context of digital health is challenging. What are the accepted norms for history and examination during a telehealth consult? How should these be documented on electronic systems? When is it safe to offer digital first solutions for disease management? What is the custom for clinicians to ensure continuity of care? If there is a medical error, should the error be attributed to the clinician or the artificial intelligence-based clinical decision-making system?
In this article we identify and discuss technology specific risks for malpractice liability arising from the rapidly growing use of digital health technologies.
Date Issued
2022-10-20
Date Acceptance
2022-09-29
Citation
npj Digital Medicine, 2022, 5 (157), pp.1-6
ISSN
2398-6352
Publisher
Nature Research
Start Page
1
End Page
6
Journal / Book Title
npj Digital Medicine
Volume
5
Issue
157
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-022-00698-3
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Health Care Sciences & Services
Medical Informatics
TELEMEDICINE
CARE
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2022-10-20