Ambulatory Telemedicine and Article 44 of the Emergency Life-Saving Technician's Act and Article 20 of the Medical Practitioner's Act

This paper shall discuss the legal bases for mobile telecommunications-based medical supervision in Japan and bulletin from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. According to Article 44 of the Emergency Life-Saving Technician’s Act, an emergency technician shall not perform certain emergency medical procedures unless specifically authorized to do so by a medical practitioner. Actual conditions make these requirements unwieldy to put into practice. When requested to provide medical control in response to a cell phone call inquiry from an ambulance, a medical practitioner (i.e., a licensed physician), has no choice but to allow the emergency technician to administer medical care, despite the lack of the information needed to grasp actual conditions within the ambulance. These circumstances expose medical practitioners (licensed physicians) to significant legal risks and societal ramifications.