Course: “The limits of virtual medicine”

The Grifols Foundation, together with the Consortium of the Menéndez y Pelayo International University and the Ernest Lluch Centre of Barcelona, organized the course entitled “The limits of virtual medicine”, co-directed by one of the Foundation’s trustees, Vladimir de Semir, and Doctor Gemma Revuelta.

In just a few years information and communication technologies (ICT) have brought about major changes in social relations and access to information. In health and medicine, this process has created a completely new situation: anyone can now access information sources of whose existence they would have been completely unaware only a few years ago. And people can also consult a doctor online, buy medicines and so on. ICTs open up all sorts of opportunities, but they also bring risk associated with the creation of false hope, alarmism and disinformation. Cases of fraudulent diagnosis and treatment of illness are increasingly common, and this obviously poses a serious risk to people’s health. Regulating ‘virtual medicine’ is a complex task, above all because of the way the internet breaks down national borders. Medical products and services which are prohibited in some countries can be advertised on the web, and it is extremely difficult to prevent access to and trade in them.

What are the limits of ICTs as an instrument of communication in health and medicine? The aim of this seminar was to explore the role of these technologies within the new panorama which is covered by the generic term ‘virtual medicine’.