Iranian physicians' expectations of telemedicine development and implementation infrastructures in teaching hospitals

AIMS Public Health. 2019 Nov 22;6(4):514-522. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2019.4.514. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Introduction: In spite of the fact that telemedicine has various advantages; similarly as in some other data systems, it is essential to investigate clients' perspective of technology. Besides, the clients' awareness and satisfaction of the telemedicine are significant issues that ought to be considered before starting a telemedicine program. The present examination in this way looks to assess Iranian doctors' demeanor and recognition toward the infrastructures of telemedicine development and implementation.

Methods: The participants of this examination included doctors working in health care organizations subsidiary to Semnan University of Medical Sciences during 2019 in Iran. A valid and reliable questionnaire was used in order to evaluate the subjects' attitudes.

Results: The mean score of physicians' attitudes towards human factors was 3.43 ± 0.59, towards educational factors was 3.68 ± 0.94 and towards security factors was 3.50 ± 0.52. Regression analysis showed that there were significant relationships between physicians' knowledge and their attitudes towards human (P < 0.001), educational (P < 0.001) and security (P = 0.046) infrastructures.

Conclusion: the findings of this study show that there are several obstacles that can be reduced through teaching, change-management methods and personal patient-to-provider communication. These techniques can improve acceptance and continuous usage of telemedicine among Iranian physicians.

Keywords: Iran; hospitals; physicians; teaching; telemedicine.