Telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic: Egyptian healthcare professionals’ views

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Despite its suggested positive outcomes, telemedicine will only be a helpful health service when people begin to utilize it. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) represent the principal users of telemedicine services, and their willingness to adopt them has a remarkable impact on their successful implementation. Aim: Identify the acceptability of telemedicine services and the relations between the key facilitators and inhibitors of telemedicine services from the perspective of HCPs in Egypt. Methodology: An observational, analytical cross-sectional study employing the internet platforms of social media among HCPs all over Egypt, via a web-based survey over six months, from August 2020 to January 2021. Results: 262 HCPs participated in the study; 32.8% of the studied HCPs stated they had a high knowledge of telemedicine technology, 41.6% stated that telemedicine was easy to implement and 41.3% believed telemedicine was necessary for patient care. Conclusion: While the use of telemedicine is every day in many countries, the results of the current study showed that the knowledge of telemedicine technology was quite limited, which influenced their attitude toward that technology. Therefore, increasing users' knowledge and demonstrating its capabilities and benefits is essential before deployment.