Since May 2022, the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM) has regulated and approved the use of telemedicine in Brazil as a way to guarantee medical services mediated by communication technologies.
This technology is becoming increasingly popular because it increases the safety of online consultations and other health procedures.
In this article, you will discover the role of biometrics and its benefits in telemedicine in Brazil.
An overview of Telemedicine in Brazil
The introduction of telemedicine in Brazil has been a slow process. Initially, consultations were limited to remote and inaccessible areas where the lack of health services was notorious.
Until the COVID-19 pandemic, the Brazilian government extended the possibility of teleconsultation to all areas of health, but only for the duration of the public emergency.
Over time, however, technological advances and the growing need to expand access to health care have promoted telemedicine. Medical authorities have recognized this tool's importance in both urban and rural areas and finally regulated it.
Today, telemedicine plays an essential role in optimizing medical care in Brazil. It allows patients to connect with healthcare professionals, enables virtual consultations, monitors chronic diseases, and provides distance medical education.
According to the president of the CFM, José Hiran Gallo, the conditions for telemedicine to become a reality in Brazil are: "based on strict ethical, technical and legal parameters [...] and at the same time guarantee security, privacy, confidentiality and integrity of patient data".
Therefore, data security and privacy are on the agenda and fundamental to the safe progress of telemedicine. One of the most widely used technologies to ensure the confidentiality of patient and healthcare professional information is biometric recognition.
Biometrics in Telemedicine
As biometric technology has become more accessible and known, the formalization and application of its use in telemedicine has begun over the last two decades.
Integrating and using biometrics in telemedicine has been motivated by the need to improve the safety, efficiency, and accuracy of remote healthcare services while addressing growing concerns about data security and patient privacy.
Combining biometrics and telemedicine offers a comprehensive solution to many challenges of delivering healthcare at a distance. Technology has played a critical role in facilitating the transition to safe, effective, and compliant virtual medical consultations.
Five benefits of biometrics in telemedicine in Brazil
Although security is the main objective in the search and implementation of biometrics in virtual health services, this solution offers many other benefits. Here are five of them:
- Secure Authentication of Patients and Healthcare Professionals: reduces the risk of unauthorized access to confidential medical information because biometrics correspond to unique information about individuals, eliminating the possibility of credential theft.
- Reducing Identification Errors: ensuring that medical records are associated with the correct person is fundamental to avoiding misdiagnosis and guaranteeing that treatments and prescriptions go to the right patient.
To this end, key technologies enable the quality of biometric data and avoid data deduplication and identification problems.
Deduplication eliminates duplicate data, ensuring that each file or block of information is stored only once.
- Convenient access to medical records: saves time, improves telemedicine efficiency, and helps healthcare professionals make informed decisions.
- Enhanced data security: protecting sensitive medical information from theft and unauthorized access is critical to complying with privacy regulations.
In addition, biometrics provides access to manage medication deliveries and prescriptions. Biometric access helps reduce fraud and waste.
- Facilitate Emergencies: quickly identify patients and access critical information such as allergies or pre-existing conditions in emergencies.
Telemedicine saves lives
Biometrics significantly promotes patient safety and privacy, making it a key ally in healthcare compliance.
By efficiently combining the world of virtual medicine with the reliability of biometric identification, this approach continues to improve the quality of medical care and extend the reach of healthcare regardless of geographic barriers.
The synergy between biometrics and telemedicine is undoubtedly a winning combination driving the positive change in healthcare delivery today.
