The Differing Effect of Gender and Clinical Specialty on Physicians' Intention to Use Electronic Medical Record

Abstract

Background: The use of electronic medical record (EMR) is anticipated to bring benefits for patients, physicians, and organizations. But limited physicians' acceptance of EMR presents a serious threat to its effective implementation.

Objectives: The current study incorporates technology acceptance model (TAM) with two antecedents, gender, and clinical specialty and one context-specific factor, financial incentives, to identify the factors that influence physicians' intention to use EMR in Taiwan.

Methods: The survey methodology was used to collect data from the physicians, working in the regional hospital that had implemented EMR system. A total of 119 out of 213 questionnaires returned in a response rate of 56%. But four responses were considered ineffective due to missing values. The structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was employed to analyze the research framework.

Results: The partial least squares (PLS) regression indicated that three factors perceived usefulness, financial incentives, and attitude toward using EMR significantly affect physicians' intention. But concerning perceived ease of use (PEOU), an insignificant path coefficient was reported. Additionally, regression analysis showed gender, and clinical specialty positively influenced physicians' intention to use EMR.

Discussion and conclusions: The proposed research framework contributes to the conclusive explanation for interpreting physicians' intention to use EMR. Physicians generally have a higher level of computer literacy. Therefore, the factor of PEOU could not be critical regarding adopting new health information technology (HIT). This study also brings perspectives from the gender, and clinical differences have primarily been missing in the literature of the physicians' intention to use HIT. In doing so, it infers how gender, and clinical specialty, may complement (and in some instances, reinforce) the influence of technological and attitudinal factors of HIT use. Thus, health care providers must take these factors into consideration in the development and validation of the theories regarding the intention to use EMR.