Use of WhatsApp between doctors and patients is the subject of a CFM opinion

The Federal Council of Medicine (CFM) released an opinion on the use of Whatsapp between physicians and also professionals and their patients. Document nº 14/2017 is signed by the reporting member Emmanuel Fortes S. Cavalcanti. After a broad approach on the subject, the opinion, in its conclusion, highlights the private character of the exchanged contents: “The Whatsapp and similar platforms can be used for communication between physicians and their patients, as well as between physicians and physicians privately to send data or clarify doubts with colleagues, as well as in closed groups of specialists or the clinical staff of an institution or chair, with the caveat that all information passed on is absolutely confidential and cannot go beyond the limits of the group itself, nor can it circulate in recreational groups, even if composed only of doctors, emphasizing the explicit prohibition on replacing face-to-face consultations and those for complementation diagnostic or evolutionary at the discretion of the physician by any of the existing or future platforms.” Click here and check out the complete opinion.