Development of Telemedicine Legislation: Contradictions and Trends

The paper examines the legal aspects of the rapidly developing field of remote medical care (telemedicine). The development of this institution, despite significant public demand for such medical services, faces numerous challenges, including legal ones. These challenges are viewed as consequences of technical or administrative contradictions that are being consistently resolved at the stages of the emergence of telemedicine, its development, the formation of the necessary regulatory framework, as well as the practical implementation of existing legal norms. The idea that contradictions in the process of legal regulation can serve both as a catalyst for the development of law and as an obstacle to achieving its goals is illustrated by examples from Russian and foreign experience in developing telemedicine services. One of the most significant contradictions is the need for the simultaneous orientation of adopted legal norms towards two competing priorities: the availability of medical services and their high quality. The prospects for the development of telemedicine in Russia and in the world directly depend on the ability to find tools, including legal ones, that ensure a balance between the two named priorities.