THE Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) has updated guidance for telehealth and virtual care to ensure patients receive high-quality care.

The changes reflect concerns around unethical practice and emerging business models focused more on profit than patient safety, with such practices in the medicinal cannabis space increasingly coming under fire (PD 09 Jul).

The agency called out poor practices, such as relying on SMS, email or online questionnaires to assess a patient’s needs, rather than a face-to-face consultation; not obtaining informed consent around the use of AI scribes; and not confirming a patient’s identity.

“Telehealth has been great in making it easier for people to get the care they need.

“We just want to make sure that convenience doesn’t come at the cost of safety or quality,” Ahpra CEO Justin Untersteiner said.

See the updated guide HERE.

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