Features of criminal liability for crimes in the field of telemedicine
In recent years telemedicine is increasingly being introduced into people’s life which is fraught with serious socially dangerous consequences, for example, if assistance is provided remotely by a doctor who is not entitled to perform such medical actions. In addition, as a result of providing medical services per Internet the doctor may make a mistake in making a diagnosis (consultation), which may lead to the death of the patient or other negative consequences. In regulatory documents telemedicine technologies are defined as information technologies that provide for remote interaction of medical workers among themselves, with patients and (or) their legal representatives, identify and authenticate specified persons, document their actions during consultations, and remote medical monitoring of the patients health. The study examined the issues of legal and illegal provision of medical and pharmaceutical care using telemedicine technologies, especially criminal liability for this type of activity. The author came to the conclusion that the legislator should take into account by the differentiation of criminal responsibility under Art. 235 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation a heightened degree of public danger of crimes connected with illegal remote medical and pharmaceutical activities, as a result of which, due to carelessness, harm to human health or death is caused. For this purpose, using the qualified corpus delicti, it is necessary to foresee toughening of punishment for the specified activity.