Del. Code tit. 24 § 1702 : PROFESSIONS AND OCCUPATIONS — MEDICAL PRACTICE ACT — GENERAL PROVISIONS — Definitions

The following definitions apply to this chapter unless otherwise expressly stated or implied by the context:

(1) "Board" means the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline.

(2) "Certificate to practice medicine" means the authorization awarded by the Board to a person who has been qualified to practice medicine in this State by meeting the requirements of this chapter.

(3) "Conversion therapy" means any practice or treatment that seeks to change an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity, as "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" are defined in § 710 of Title 19, including any effort to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same gender. "Conversion therapy" does not mean any of the following:

a. Counseling that provides assistance to an individual who is seeking to undergo a gender transition or who is in the process of undergoing gender transition.

b. Counseling that provides an individual with acceptance, support, and understanding without seeking to change an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity.

c. Counseling that facilitates an individual's coping, social support, and identity exploration and development, including counseling in the form of sexual orientation-neutral interventions or gender identity-neutral interventions provided for the purpose of preventing or addressing unlawful conduct or unsafe sexual practices, without seeking to change an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity.

(4) "Division" means the Division of Professional Regulation.

(5) "Electronic prescription means a prescription that is generated on an electronic application and transmitted as an electronic data file.

(6) "Executive Director" means the Executive Director of the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline.

(7) "Healthcare institution" means a facility or agency licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized by law to provide, in the ordinary course of business, treatments, services, or procedures to maintain, diagnose, or otherwise affect a person's physical or mental condition.

(8) "Medical group" means 1 or more physicians or other health care practitioners who work together under the name of a professional corporation, a limited liability partnership, or other legal entity.

(9) "Medicine" means the science of restoring or preserving health and includes allopathic medicine and surgery, osteopathic medicine and surgery, and all the respective branches of the foregoing.

(10)"Physician" means an allopathic doctor of medicine and surgery or a doctor of osteopathic medicine and surgery who is registered and certified to practice medicine pursuant to this chapter.

(11) "Practice of medicine" or "practice medicine" includes:

a. Advertising, holding out to the public, or representing in any manner that one is authorized to practice medicine in this State;

b. Offering or undertaking to prescribe, order, give, or administer any drug or medicine for the use of another person;

c. Offering or undertaking to prevent or to diagnose, correct, and/or treat in any manner or by any means, methods, or devices a disease, illness, pain, wound, fracture, infirmity, defect, or abnormal physical or mental condition of another person, including the management of pregnancy and parturition;

d. Offering or undertaking to perform a surgical operation upon another person;

e. Rendering a written or otherwise documented medical opinion concerning the diagnosis or treatment of a person or the actual rendering of treatment to a person within the State by a physician located outside the State as a result of transmission of the person's medical data by electronic or other means from within the State to the physician or to the physician's agent;

f. Rendering a determination of medical necessity or a decision affecting or modifying the diagnosis and/or treatment of a person;

g. Using the designation Doctor, Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Osteopathy, physician, surgeon, physician and surgeon, Dr., M.D., or D.O., or a similar designation, or any combination thereof, in the conduct of an occupation or profession pertaining to the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of human disease or condition, unless the designation additionally contains the description of another branch of the healing arts for which one holds a valid license in the State.

For the purposes of this chapter, in order that the full resources of the State are available for the protection of persons using the services of physicians, the act of the practice of medicine occurs where a person is located at the time a physician practices medicine upon the person.

(12) "Protective hairstyle" includes braids, locks, and twists.

(13) "Race" includes traits historically associated with race, including hair texture and a protective hairstyle.

(14) "Registration" means the entry of a certificate to practice medicine into the records of the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline pursuant to the regulations of the Board.

(15) "Reproductive health services" includes all of the following:

a. "Abortion" as defined in § 1782 of this title.

b. "Termination of pregnancy" as authorized in § 1790 of this title.

c. Emergency contraception that is approved by the Federal Drug Administration and available over-the-counter, with a prescription, or dispensed consistent with the requirements of Chapter 25 of this title.

d. Services relating to pregnancy or the termination of pregnancy including medical, surgical, counseling, or referral services.

(16) "Store and forward transfer" means the transmission of a patient's medical information either to or from an originating site or to or from the provider at the distant site, but does not require the patient being present nor must it be in real time.

(17) "Substantially related" means the nature of criminal conduct for which a person was convicted has a direct bearing on the person's fitness or ability to perform 1 or more of the duties or responsibilities necessarily related to the practice of medicine, the work of a physician assistant, of the practice of respiratory care.

(18)"Unauthorized practice of medicine" means the practice of medicine as defined in paragraph (11) of this section by a person not authorized under this chapter to perform an act set forth in that subsection, unless excepted by § 1703 of this title.

(19) "Viability" means the point in a pregnancy when, in a physician's good faith medical judgment based on the factors of a patient's case, there is a reasonable likelihood of the fetus's sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.

24 Del. C. § 1702

Amended by Laws 2021, ch. 327,s 1, eff. 6/29/2022.

Amended by Laws 2021, ch. 52,s 5, eff. 7/1/2021.

Amended by Laws 2021, ch. 13,s 20, eff. 4/13/2021.

Amended by Laws 2019, ch. 261,s 4, eff. 7/17/2020.

Amended by Laws 2019, ch. 75,s 3, eff. 1/1/2021.

Amended by Laws 2017, ch. 340,s 2, eff. 7/23/2018.

Amended by Laws 2017, ch. 35,s 1, eff. 6/8/2017.

Amended by Laws 2015, ch. 80,s 2, eff. 1/1/2016.

60 Del. Laws, c. 462, § 1; 61 Del. Laws, c. 68, §§ 2, 3; 62 Del. Laws, c. 90, §1; 62 Del. Laws, c. 112, §1; 63 Del. Laws, c. 62, §1; 65 Del. Laws, c. 490, §1; 67 Del. Laws, c. 5, §1; 67 Del. Laws, c. 434, §1; 68 Del. Laws, c. 147, §1; 68 Del. Laws, c. 152, §1; 69 Del. Laws, c. 355, §§1, 2, 6; 70 Del. Laws, c. 186, § 1; 71 Del. Laws, c. 283, § 1; 74 Del. Laws, c. 262, § 27; 75 Del. Laws, c. 141, § 1; 77 Del. Laws, c. 319, § 1.;