The Role of Law in Preventing ''Remote'' Defensive Medicine: Challenges and Perspectives in the Use of Telemedicine

The practical value of remote healthcare services was brought to light by the health crisis related to the Covid-19 pandemic. European and national institutions’ agendas need to rely on a new conception of care based on home interventions and reduced access to emergency hospitals to face not only epidemiological emergencies but also the challenges deriving from demographic changes. From a public law perspective, many issues need to be considered for the purpose of a coherent development of these services and for targeting efficiently the incoming funds. How is the law fitted to face the challenge of providing appropriate constraints, incentives, and protections to those operating in, and affected by, the field of new health technologies having specific regard to the use of Telemedicine? How the re-shaping of professional liability will interact with the “defensive medicine” (i.e. medical actions that physicians do -or do not do-to better shield from negligence or malpractice lawsuits)?