November/December 2018

Telehealth a hot topic in vet community

❯❯ Also in this Issue: OVMA provides feedback on pharmacy rule revisions

By Jack Advent, CAE
OVMA Executive Director

The national conversation on telehealth to deliver medicine and it potential uses in veterinary medicine continues to grow. Central to part of the early debate has been its permissibility in the context of a VCPR.

Telehealth vs. Telemedicine: What's the difference?

Telehealth is the term generally used to cover all aspects of using technology to remotely deliver health information, education or care.

Telemedicine reflects a more direct application of using technology to diagnose, offer guidance or otherwise treat a patient and can only be done in the context of a VCPR.

The American Association of Veterinary State Boards just issued general guidance for its members on approaching telehealth; however, certain parameters such as the veterinarian-client-patient relationship component are dictated by what current state laws reflect. In Ohio, the concept and tenets of what constitutes a valid VCPR can be found in Ohio Revised Code 4741.04. These are consistent with what are found in most other states and are covered in three principal prongs:

The first is that the veterinarian has assumed a responsibility to make medical judgements, providing a pathway of diagnosis and treatment as appropriate and which the client has agreed to.
Second, the veterinarian has sufficient knowledge of the patient(s)—either a single animal or a herd—to make at least a preliminary diagnosis and that to do so, the “veterinarian shall have seen the patient recently” (the Ohio Veterinary Medical Licensing Board has interpreted “recently" to generally be within the past year, unless medical circumstances would reflect a time period of less than one year) and “shall be acquainted personally with the keeping and care of the patient either by examining the patient or by making medically appropriate and timely visits to the premises where the patient is kept.” This second prong has been generally interpreted that a VCPR can only be initially established in person and not by remote means.
The third prong of the VCPR is that the veterinarian is readily available for follow-up evaluation or has arranged for emergency care should there be complications from the treatment.

The use of telemedicine with current clients already exists in certain capacities and situations. As the concept takes hold in a more formal and structured way, veterinary licensing boards will no doubt be asked to provide judgement and guidance on those medical scenarios in which telemedicine is an appropriate tool, as well as others where a standard of medicine calls for physical examination.

OVMA provides feedback on pharmacy rule revisions

The OVMA continues to work on, provide commentary to and testify on a wide variety of proposed rule revisions put forth by the Ohio Board of Pharmacy. These revisions include general provisions affecting all prescribers such, as TDDD licensing parameters, responsible person designation, records retention, disposal of controlled substances, inspections, use of third-party online pharmacy providers and disciplinary actions, among others. Other proposals rewrite certain veterinary-specific provisions affecting areas such as security, personally furnishing/dispensing, documentation and records, as well as other elements. OVMA will continue to represent you and apprise you as any rule changes by the Board of Pharmacy are promulgated.