AMA Journal of Ethics^®

To fairly distribute the benefits of digital technologies, clinicians will need to be incentivized to adopt technologies that target the underserved.

Pathologists’ adoption of practical social media use guidelines can help mitigate risk to patients.

High rates of burnout and depression among residents underscore the need for innovative ways to promote wellness, mental health awareness.

Telemedicine is fast becoming a reliable medium for convening ethics deliberations and bringing expert assistance to remote locations.

Successful telemedicine ethics consultation requires knowledge of relevant laws and, for videoconferences, the physical presence of a meeting leader.

A clinical practice policy prohibiting house calls that opposes the practice standards of individual clinicians may be unethical and reasonable, but it may still be possible to treat patients who prefer house calls while abiding by the policy.

For telemedicine to be properly integrated into everyday care in the twenty-first century, we need to advance beyond twentieth-century policy.

Arguments that mistrust about information security will deter patients from embracing telehealth care ignore patients' willingness to take on risk in the pursuit of health benefits and the role physicians will play in encouraging adoption.

Telemedicine intensive care units enable off-site physicians to cover many care centers, thereby increasing efficiency and access to care, although their use also raises concerns about varying standards of care, unreliable equipment, the erosion of trust in the patient-physician relationship, and the adequacy of the informed consent process.

Although cross-state licensure is currently a barrier to the widespread adoption of telemedicine, policies that would expedite it or remove the requirement to be licensed where patients are located have been proposed by the Federation of State Medical Boards and the federal government.