Medicolegal Liability and Telemedicine Practice during COVID-19 Pandemic: Egyptian Physicians' Perspectives

Introduction: During COVID-19 pandemic, physicians faced diverse medicolegal dilemmas, and they found themselves increasingly involved in the practice of telemedicine; which by itself entails many ethical and medicolegal concerns. Aim of work: To ameliorate medicolegal liability and malpractice suits during future pandemics through assessment of perception/attitude of Egyptian physicians towards medicolegal liability of practicing medicine during COVID-19 pandemic and exploring their perception/attitude & practice of telemedicine during COVID 19 pandemic. Participants & methods: We conducted an online survey among 385 Egyptian physicians of variable specialties; which focused on two challenging issues; 1) medicolegal liability of medical practice during the pandemic, and 2) telemedicine. Results: Our results showed that 62 % believed that physicians should be given legal protections in the form of a total exemption from medico-legal liability during COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, 77% agreed that sharing patients' data on social media may subject them to legal risk. About 63% practiced telemedicine during the pandemic; where 58% declared that it subjects physicians to medicolegal liability in case of malpractice, 57% approved requiring a specific license and 76% approved requiring training, while 37% believed that telemedicine practice doesn't require informed consent. There was a positive moderate correlation between total score of both sections of our questionnaire (r= =0.35, p < 0.0001). Logistic regression models showed that regarding physicians’ opinions about telemedicine; their specialty and working in COVID-19 triage were statistically significant predictors. Conclusion: Our study draws attention to the need to propose reform plans to address such challenges during the current COVID-19 pandemic and future possible pandemics, not only on a national level, but also globally.