Commentary: Legal aspects of health on the internet: a European perspective

摘要

For many European citizens, online doctors and pharmacies offer the opportunity to acquire medical advice and treatment from abroad more cheaply or swiftly than they could in their own country. Yet, in common with the individual states in the United States, regional and national authorities of the member states of the European Union seem to be resisting online medical practice. Indeed, they are actively entrenching legal barriers to such practice rather than liberalising regulations. On 10 January 2002, for instance, a doctor from Staffordshire who sold the "sex pill" Viagra and a slimming drug, Xenical, through the MEDClinic website (www.medclinic.co.uk) was found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the United Kingdom's General Medical Council and suspended for three months. During his suspension the GMC will decide whether or not to take further action. The case clearly shows that the practice, common on websites, of requiring an online questionnaire to be completed by the patient and reviewed by me prescribing doctor is not considered anywhere near adequate to avoid a gross breach of the standards of patient care expected of doctors by the GMC. It remains to be seen whether or not, in light of this ruling, similar services throughout Europe will modify their practices.