My work involves developing a cadre of applications for the mental health and substance abuse treatment communities. Like it or not, many professional practitioners are beginning to embrace the possibilities the Internet make available. I have been involved in several discussion groups concerning the legalities and ethics involved in online consulting - call it e-consult, e-therapy or e-hab (a plug for our flagship product.
Many of the practitioners I have talked with exercise more care withthe information that traverses the Internet than they do with the medical charts in their offices. Identity management, security, HIPAA and ethics are critical to the success of this new provisioning for heealth care. AMA and other professional organizations are taking it very slow and are being very cautious but they are moving forward and establishing rules and guidelines for online practitioners.
I have collected a long list of resources that deal with online health issues and have madethem available on our website www.choose2change.com.
Also, as a database application developer, I must meet the varying requirements set forth by the federal and state governing authorities concerning the identity, security and protection of client information. The task is a daunting one but one that must be arduously undertaken.
I know I ramble on a bit, but there really is so much to discuss when it comes to the medical and mental health communitis embracing the future of online consulting. Thanks for listening.
