Risk Management in the Digital World

The literature is replete with articles addressing how the electronic age has created new and improved ways to deliver health care services. This change, however, has raised many questions regarding how professionals can utilize this new technology in a fashion that is consistent with both ethics and law. In this article we attempt a point in time survey of the problems created by practicing psychotherapy in the digital age focusing on a conceptual overview of two specific areas. We review various perceptions of the current state-based regulation of digital interstate practice by psychologists and provide an overview of some basic ethical and risk management principles that have to be addressed by practitioners before proceeding to offer these services given an uncertain regulatory environment.