Middle Eastern Region
Frequently Asked Questions
(Pakistan, Saudi Arabia)
Do you have relevant/specific legal regulations regarding telemedicine practice in your hospital/region/country?
Saudi Arabia: Saudi Telemedicine Unit of Excellence (STUE) governs telemedicine Malpractice insurance for health care professionals practicing telemedicine falls into the irregular malpractice insurance
Physicians need to have a license
Pakistan: no specific regulations
Is there specific reimbursement for telemedicine services (fee for service) or it is included in your clinical care practice without any specific reimbursement? Any rules or recommendations regarding institutional preferences for time split between physical visits versus virtual?
Saudi Arabia: no reimbursement.
Pakistan: no reimbursement.
How do you use telemedicine? What actual methods - mainly telephone calls?, e mails, text messages, videoconferences? Any specific platform/software?
Saudi Arabia: App (Seha) Phone calls.
Pakistan: Personal email, personal cell phone and personal WhatsApp
The main difficulties or barriers to perform telemedicine? Technological limitations, patient rejection, lack of training how to conduct it. Privacy concerns?
Saudi Arabia: cultural reasons
Pakistan: remote care, mostly in the form of phone calls, personal texts, are practiced in an as-needed basis, by some providers, but due to lack of reimbursement more widespread penetration isn’t a reality at the present time.
With the COVID-19, are neurologists/movement disorder specialists in your country/region using more telemedicine?, which kind? Has this crisis change anything in #1-4?
Saudi Arabia: virtual clinics: telephone calls
Pakistan: https://doctors247.online/