Legal, Technological and Regulatory Challenges to the Integration of Telemedicine into Climate Change Mitigation-Empirical Insights from Bengaluru City, India

The role of telemedicine in mitigating climate change looks promising as there is growing evidence of it contributing to reducing carbon footprints, saving energy consumption, and reducing waste accumulation, but the existing research is not exhaustive. Telemedicine provides multiple benefits, including remote healthcare access and expert consultation; however, constraints in terms of insufficient information about the patient’s medical history, possibility of misdiagnosis from technical limitations increases the risk of medical negligence litigation. Only by addressing these challenges, telemedicine can effectively contribute to climate change mitigation. Firstly, this paper discusses and reviews the literature on the impact of telemedicine on the environment. Secondly, it critically examines the guidelines and reported judgements to explore the challenges in establishing standard of care in telemedicine negligence claims, and the technological and regulatory challenges of its integration into climate mitigation. The methodology also includes questionnaires to collect data from the key stakeholders of the telemedicine system: doctors and patients in Bengaluru Urban, a growing hub for telehealth services in India. Despite the Telemedicine Guidelines 2020, certain issues persist. In conclusion, this would contribute to some practical suggestions for more reforms in the telemedicine governance of India and guiding policy-making in the integration of telemedicine, environment protection, and public health.