Bringing Order to Cybermedicine: Applying the Corporate Practice of Medicine Doctrine to Tame the Wild Wild Web

Abstract

The model of health care offerings via the Internet, generally known as "cybermedicine," may prove to be a significant advance in the provision of medical services. At present, however, cybermedicine presents many potential hazards to "cyberpatients" because it is virtually unregulated. This Note asserts the need for a revival of the corporate practice of medicine doctrine to address these dangers. The corporate practice of medicine doctrine prohibits corporations and other lay entities from employing physicians. This Note examines the various kinds of cybermedicine, describes the advantages and disadvantages flowing from the practice of medicine over the Internet, and advocates the application of the corporate practice of medicine doctrine to cybermedicine as an intermediate regulatory measure to stein the dangers and abuses that currently abound in cybermedicine.