Christian Hageseth, a former Colorado psychiatrist who prescribed antidepressants after telephone patient encounters, was sentenced to nine months in prison in April for practicing medicine in a state in which he wasn't licensed, according to news reports.

In 2005, Hageseth prescribed the antidepressant fluoxetine from his Colorado home to a 19-year-old college student in California. The student later committed suicide by carbon monoxide asphyxiation, though the medication was not determined to be a factor in the death, according to the court.

"This really doesn't have anything to do with telemedicine; it really has to do with following the appropriate protocols in both patient management and license credentialing," says Dale Alverson, MD, president-elect of the American Telemedicine Association and medical director for the Center for Telehealth at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences. "If you're going to practice healthcare in another state, whether it's virtually through telehealth or face to face, you should be duly licensed and credentialed."