[Ethical and legal aspects of telemedicine].

The recent development of telemedicine, i.e. the use of communication technologies to transfer medical information, raises special ethical and legal issues. The HPST law regulates the delivery of remote healthcare in France. The ethical aspects of telemedicine are similar in many respects to those of conventional medicine, but the involvement of non clinical personnel and the use of technologies raise special issues such as confidentiality. Patients must be informed of these issues and their consent must be sought before employing telemedicine procedures. Finally, in case of malpractice complaints, the respective liabilities of the different disciplines involved in telemedicine must be determined