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Telehealth attitudes and use among medical professionals, medical students and patients in China: A cross-sectional survey
- Source :
- International journal of medical informatics. 108
- Publication Year :
- 2017
-
Abstract
- Background Telehealth aims to revolutionize health care by migrating health care from hospitals and satellite clinics directly into the home and onto mobile devices. Telehealth has the potential to increase public access to healthcare in China, where large segments of the population remain underserved, yet little is known about current attitudes and use of telehealth in the country. Objective Our aim was to determine attitudes and use of telehealth in China among medical professionals and patients, as well as identify factors that may affect its use. Methods Using a custom-designed questionnaire, we performed a cross-sectional survey of medical professionals, medical students and patients at three large hospitals in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. We used a structural model to analyze the influence of factors that may affect use of telehealth. Results Of 600 questionnaires that were distributed, 550 (96.49%) were analyzed. Most respondents (63.28%) were familiar with using telehealth to “schedule medical appointments/pay medical fees online”, but relatively few (28.55%) used this feature. Nearly half of respondents were familiar with the concept of a “virtual visit” (46.18%), but only 12.18% had ever engaged in such visits. Medical professionals and students generally showed higher awareness and greater use of telehealth than patients. The strongest concern about telehealth among respondents was “authenticity and reliability of data from remote monitoring of patients” (75.17%). The proportion of respondents concerned about the potential disadvantages of telehealth was highest among students and lowest among patients. Awareness and use of telehealth were associated with previous experience with health-related use of the Internet and experience with traditional forms of telehealth, but not with social status or attitude toward telehealth. Conclusions Medical professionals and patients alike in China have a high awareness of telehealth, primarily traditional forms of telehealth, but only a small percentage actually use it. Patients have much lower awareness and use of telehealth than medical professionals and medical students, though they have generally positive attitudes towards telehealth. Telehealth is still in its infancy in China, and the environment for its development is largely favorable among current and future medical professionals.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Telemedicine
China
Students, Medical
020205 medical informatics
Adolescent
Patients
Cross-sectional study
Attitude of Health Personnel
education
Population
Health Informatics
02 engineering and technology
Telehealth
Affect (psychology)
03 medical and health sciences
Young Adult
0302 clinical medicine
Nursing
Surveys and Questionnaires
Health care
0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering
medicine
Humans
030212 general & internal medicine
Child
health care economics and organizations
Aged
education.field_of_study
Internet
business.industry
Reproducibility of Results
Middle Aged
Cross-Sectional Studies
Family medicine
Female
business
Attitude to Health
Social status
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 18728243
- Volume :
- 108
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- International journal of medical informatics
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....7e7f0a1cc7b026c1086345619f13faa8