Behavioral Economics and Innovation Uptake: Building New Capabilities to Overcome Barriers to Technology-Enabled Care

Introduction

The Federal Medical Council (CFM) has recently published a new resolution on telemedicine in Brazil. The 2227/2018 resolution, establishing the criteria for the use of telemedicine, was published in Diario Oficial da União (DOU, the official journal of the federal government of Brazil) on February 6, 2019. This new policy, aimed at defining telemedicine as a way of providing medical services by means of technology, is much more aggressive than the previous one published in 2002, which limited the use of telemedicine to medical consultations made by telephone or internet, and implied the presence of a health professional at both ends of the communication channel. The current resolution expanded the concept of telemedicine in providing technological solutions for remote patient monitoring and treatment (drug prescription and surgical interventions), and analysis of laboratory results. However, soon after its release, the new document caused an intense public debate on the theme dividing stakeholders for and against the incorporation of telemedicine into practice nationwide. The debate was so intense that the Federal Medical Council revoked the resolution, as published in the DOU on March 6, 2019.

The revocation of the policy after intense societal debate indicates the significant challenges regarding the implementation of technology-enabled care in Brazil. Such debate should not be the end, but rather, the beginning of a social mobilization to reframe the use of connected technology in healthcare in the country. To tackle the barriers to the uptake of technology-enabled care in Brazil, one should better understand the stakeholder positions, and consider the political and cultural environment, the ethical and legal apparatus and the available technology infrastructure.

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