The Human Challenge of Telemedicine

Telepatients using connected objects to collect time-sensitive data about their health are not neutral carriers of diagnosable symptoms. Patients are persons, or personal beings as well as co-carers, whose personal experience, history and know-how must be acknowledged in time-sensitive telecare practices. Such practices require a relational ethics, inspired by medical ethics and an ethics of virtues, focusing on vulnerability and emotional health, to oversee telecare good practices, define a new therapeutic alliance compliant with patients’ values, and reconcile the technical and human sides of telemedicine.