Telemedicine: advantages and risks
New forms of medical aid have been widely used in the presence of global digital transformation of medicine. This concerns not only medical equipment and ensuring access to health services, but also the entire healthcare system and doctor-patient relationship. It’s impossible to imagine modern medicine without digital decisions. Digitalization of the available information and making it available for all participants of the doctor-patient system form the basis of subsequent development of clinical practice, breakthrough in scientific research, improved patient-centered healthcare, and comfort of system operation for people. This requires a general culture of values and ethical standards that should correspond to digital decisions. The article deals with the reasons for actualization of remote forms of doctor-patient communication during the COVID-19 pandemic illustrated by telemedicine. Principle forms of telemedicine under modern conditions caused not only by the pandemic but also by digital transformation of medicine have been reviewed. Special attention is given to possibilities of telemedicine from the point of view of benefit, as well as to legal and ethical aspects from the point of view of risks.