Digital Pathology and Federalism
Timothy Craig Allen, MD, JD, Pathology Chair at University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler has an interested read I came across this weekend as an early online release from the Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Allen writes:
“Digital pathology is on the horizon and society’s demand for for telemedicine is robust, so a solution to telemedicine’s physician licensure problem must be instituted soon. A ‘‘mutual recognition’’ interstate compact will require unprecedented state cooperation, but states will be strongly compelled to participate in its development because the most likely alternative—federal physician licensure—presents an unprecedented risk to federalism. The FDA’s coming approval of whole-slide imaging for primary diagnosis could well be the catalyst for its institution.
Digital pathology promises to ignite issues of federalism that cannot be extinguished short of a paradigm shift in physician licensing, with implications that go far beyond pathology and implicate state police powers and the limits of federalism. Digital pathology will define 21st-century pathology. It may define 21st-century federalism as well.”
Author information:
Timothy Craig Allen, MD, JD, Department of Pathology,University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, 11937 US Hwy271, Tyler, TX 75708-3154,Timothy.Allen@uthct.edu
