Bioethics as a lighthouse in the establishment of telemedicine. How to avoid a distant medicine

Abstract

The necessary establishment of telemedicine has been accelerated by the urgency derived from the crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Like all scientific-technical advances, to avoid excesses or undesirable extreme courses, telemedicine also requires a process of ethical reflection that accompanies its incorporation into the care of people as a tool and not as a habit. Some keys for deliberation are proposed from the essential objective of bioethics to preserve values, which professionals and citizens agree on its value and deserving of respect, despite difficulties. In the case at hand, to find the lighthouse that illuminate the essential change from the traditional clinical relationship format, preserving its essential values, avoiding the path to a distant, and impersonal medicine that does not respond to people’s needs.