Abstract
Objectives:To evaluate the experience and perceptions regarding Telemedicine and the perceived barriers among medical doctors.Methods:This cross-sectional survey was carried out by enrolling practicing doctors of Pakistan with experience of ≥6 months by sending a validated and piloted questionnaire through email. Data collection was done from 10th October to 9th November 2020 after taking ethical approval from the concerned authorities. Data was analysed using SPSS v. 19.0.Results:Two-hundred-forty responses were received with a response rate of 63%. Female participants (62.8%) were in majority and most of the participants were working in urban (88.5%) or semi-urban (9%) locality in either teaching (35.9%) or tertiary care hospitals (34.6%). Seventy-three percent of the doctors didn’t receive formal training with more than half of the doctors reporting non-availability of infrastructure and specific hardware. A large number of the participants were concerned regarding the non-availability of regulatory bodies, evaluations and accreditations of the service providers, the risks of malpractice, missed-diagnosis, prescription errors and medico-legal issues. The availability of specific infrastructure was statistically related to the hospital setup, locality and the specialty of the participants. Lack of technological literacy and infrastructure were considered the main constraints for the public in using telemedicine.Conclusion:Evidence of effectiveness of telemedicine across different fields is inconsistent and lacks technical, legal, cultural and ethical considerations. Inadequate training, low level of technological literacy and lack of infrastructure are the main barriers in implementing tele-health. High-quality evidence based studies are required for practical and long-term policies.
Highlights
Healthcare, being a rapidly evolving field, requires economical, efficacious with goodCorrespondence: December 5, 2020 March 29, 2021 April 5, 2021 reproducibility, practical and high-quality solutions for optimal patient care on individual as well as communal levels.[1]
The availability of specific infrastructure and necessary equipment was statistically related to the hospital setup, locality and the specialty of the participating doctors (Table-III) with smaller hospitals/ clinics running at primary healthcare level being severely deficient in all facilities
Despite the lack of this knowledge, many of the doctors in our study reported that telemedicine is an affordable service for both their set-ups and patients
Summary
Healthcare, being a rapidly evolving field, requires economical, efficacious with goodCorrespondence: December 5, 2020 March 29, 2021 April 5, 2021 reproducibility, practical and high-quality solutions for optimal patient care on individual as well as communal levels.[1]. Healthcare, being a rapidly evolving field, requires economical, efficacious with good. Telemedicine has aroused interest in the international markets due to its ability to overcome barriers in the way of assessing quality healthcare.[2]. Pakistan, being a predominantly developing country, lags far behind in formulating and implementing sustainable healthcare policies.[4] Despite being a concomitant commodity to conventional healthcare in developed countries, comparatively lesser efforts are done for similar utilities in the third world countries.[5] Lesser return of investment (ROI), socio-economic barriers, poor adaptability and the unavailability of proper technological infrastructures are some of the local and international hurdles.[5]
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