Telemedicine in Brazil: The Incorporation of Digital Technologies As a National Public Health Strategy
Telemedicine is presented as a highly technological solution to expand access to healthcare in the country through digital platforms that enable the provision of medical services remotely. These platforms provide the necessary infrastructure to facilitate interaction between doctors and patients in a virtual environment, operating alongside the traditional healthcare system. Through this digital infrastructure, telemedicine platforms have expanded medical care across Brazilian territory, focusing efforts on regions and population groups where the state's fragility as a provider of social welfare is most evident.
Thus, digital technologies position telemedicine in a political and social role of addressing historical gaps in access to health services. However, these technologies are predominantly developed by private and multinational companies, resulting in a shift of the political and infrastructural role of the state regarding the resolution of distributive conflicts in health to the technical-economic realm of the massive incorporation of these technologies into healthcare. This phenomenon tends to significantly enhance the role and power of Information and Communication Technology companies in public health through the implementation and control of the entire technological infrastructure and the flow of production and circulation of data that materialize virtualized medical assistance as a political strategy in health. However, the adverse effects of this dynamic have not been the subject of investigation or intervention in the analyzed political strategies.