To prohibit the exploitation of patients... new controls on the appearance of doctors in the media in Egypt

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The Egyptian Doctors Syndicate, in coordination with the Supreme Council for Media Regulation, is moving towards resolving the issue of doctors’ media appearances through the media and digital platforms.

The union is considering approving a new draft regulation that defines the controls and ethics of this appearance, in preparation for presenting it to the General Assembly at its upcoming meeting on October 9 of this year.

The new regulations include strict standards aimed at preventing misinformation, prohibiting the promotion of treatments or products that are not scientifically proven, in addition to protecting the privacy of patients, obligatory disclosure of any conflict of interest, in addition to setting regulatory frameworks for the use of artificial intelligence techniques in producing medical content.

In a statement to Al-Arabiya.net and Al-Hadath.net, Dr. Khaled Amin, Assistant Secretary-General of the Medical Syndicate, explained that these amendments come to keep pace with the rapid changes in the media landscape, noting that the last update to the rules and ethics of the profession was in 2003, before the emergence of the era of social media platforms in its current form.

Amin stressed that the past period witnessed violations resulting from the uncontrolled appearance of some doctors, which included promoting unreliable medicines and medical products, exploiting patients in advertising campaigns, and publishing content that is inconsistent with professional ethics across social networks, which made the establishment of clear controls and firm accountability mechanisms inevitable.

Regarding artificial intelligence techniques, the Assistant Secretary-General stressed that the regulations regulate the use of these tools after monitoring advertisements and contents for medicines prepared using artificial techniques, which requires that they be subject to professional and legal controls.

Regarding the axis of protecting privacy, Dr. Khaled Amin stressed that patient privacy is a red line that cannot be tolerated, stressing that the use of photos or testimonials of patients in the doctor’s personal advertising through social media is completely unacceptable, even if it is done with the consent of the patient himself.

Amin announced the ban on providing medical consultations or prescribing treatment via telephone calls without conducting a direct medical examination, stressing that the correct diagnosis must be based on a direct medical examination, explaining that once the regulation is approved by the General Assembly, all its provisions will be activated and any doctor who violates it will be referred to investigation in accordance with the approved legal procedures.

For his part, Dr. Gamal Shaaban, a consultant cardiologist and former dean of the National Heart Institute, said in statements to Al Arabiya.net and Al Hadath.net that the regulation constitutes a necessary step to restore discipline to the medical media scene in Egypt in light of the excessive spread of random practices on digital platforms.

Shaaban praised the positives of the regulation, most notably protecting the public from medical misinformation and unproven scientifically proven products, and addressing the dangers of fabricated artificial intelligence videos, as well as protecting patient data and images and disclosing conflicts of interest.

On the other hand, Shaaban pointed out the importance of formulating precise and clear criteria to determine what is considered “scientifically unproven,” while establishing flexible oversight mechanisms that ensure that the regulation is not exploited to restrict legitimate medical opinions or limit public health discussions, stressing the need to clarify penalties and provide tools to deal with medical content published on foreign cross-border digital platforms.

The cardiologist consultant concluded his statement by emphasizing that the success of the regulation depends on the clarity of the standards, the fairness of application, and the effectiveness of the procedures, while continuing to review it periodically to suit successive technological developments.