The establishment and the trends of telemedicine services in Russia

Abstract

Currently, telemedicine projects are being actively developed across the world – over 300 of them have been registered to date. The area of telemedicine has a number of specific subdivisions, including telepsychiatry.
However, there are a number of issues requiring consideration and resolution. One of them is the lack of a regulatory framework for the
conduct of telemedicine, including licensing. Also, it is necessary to carry out the analysis of the costeffectiveness of telemedicine. The current document, regulating the provision of telemedicine services is the “Concept for the construction and functioning of the telemedicine consultative system of the Ministry of Health of Russia” (2015). As a variant of finding local solutions for some of the problems, described above, the Provisions for telemedicine services have been developed at the Serbsky Federal Medical Research Centre for Psychiatry and Narcology in 2016. However, this process requires time and study of current issues, which include the earliest possible implementation of standardization of works and services, and the establishment of a strong legislative base.