Comprehending the Viewpoint of Healthcare Professionals Towards Digitalization of Clinical Practices in Healthcare Industry

Abstract

The digitalization of clinical practices in the healthcare industry has ushered in a new era of efficiency, accessibility, and patient-centric care. This transformative shift leverages technology to streamline administrative processes, enhance patient engagement, and improve overall healthcare delivery. The aim of the study is to assess the view point of healthcare professionals towards telehealth platforms and perform a comparative analysis based on gender, age group, qualification, years of experience, specialty and other factors. This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study and quantitative in nature. The study population includes general physicians, dental surgeons, physiotherapists and nutritionists employed in public and private healthcare organizations, across multiple cities in India. Data was collected over a period of two months, through a well-structured questionnaire across multiple cities in India. The invitation link to the survey was sent to 315 healthcare professionals working at various healthcare organizations, out of which 204 eventually participated in the study. The completed questionnaires were analyzed as per the study objectives using descriptive statistics for the quantitative data. The findings indicated that 59% of the participants were female healthcare professionals, while 41% were male. With regard to the view point towards telemedicine, the mean score of males and females denotes that the females have a better attitude towards the platform with mean 4.07, in comparison to males with mean 3.85. Healthcare professionals belonging to older age groups (above 50 years) are resistant towards adopting telehealth and are more comfortable in the traditional ways of consultation. This study developed a conceptual framework to determine healthcare professionals’ attitude towards telehealth services. Healthcare professionals (Dental surgeons, nutritionists, physiotherapists and alternative medicine) having less experience are more adaptive towards telemedicine platforms compared to healthcare professionals with higher experience. For the adoption of digital mode amongst the older age group of clinicians, frequent demonstrations through webinars and workshops are needed. A noteworthy benefit of telemedicine lies in its potential to alleviate costs and efforts, particularly for rural patients who can forgo arduous journeys for consultations and treatment.