The Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation has developed a project that will allow doctors to issue prescriptions based on the results of online consultations, Izvestia reports. The experiment is planned to be held in 15 private clinic chains.
According to the decree, the treatment regimen can be changed not only by the doctor who prescribed it, but also by other specialists that the patient contacted later. Such amendmends can be made by both public and private clinics, the only limitation being the medical experience of the doctor, which has to be at least seven years.
Issueing electronic prescriptions is still allowed only in cases when the diagnosis was made at an in-person appointment. To do this, it is proposed to include a provision on data exchange with the Unified State Information System in Healthcare (EGISZ) in the contract between the clinic and the patient.
The project will involve 15 chains of private clinics (including Medsi, Doctor Riadom, RenKlinika) from different regions of Russia: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Perm Krai, Udmurt Republic, and others.
If the practice is recognized as successful, in three years the experience can be scaled to the whole country. Participants in the telemedicine services market have repeatedly said that the development of the sector could accelerate if doctors are allowed to establish a primary diagnosis and issue a prescription without an in-person visit of the patient. However, the project of the Ministry of Economic Development that Izvestia wrote about does not provide such opportunities.
In 2022, Russia ranked 39th among 51 countries in the world in terms of telemedicine development and quality. The top 10 of the rating includes France, Australia, Poland, Japan, and Germany. The rating takes into account the degree of information security, the level of infrastructure and financial support, the requirements for remote counselling and the presence of a list of indications for it.