Telemedicine Acceptance and User Experience: A Gap to Be Addressed?

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Telemedicine is a constantly evolving science. Telemedicine is transfer of, medical information over phone or net with the aim of consultation. Advancement and drop in the cost of information & communication technologies, has booned the interest in the application of telemedicine. During the pandemic, in India where doctor population relationship is low, telemedicine was considered as solution. Objective: This study was done with the aim to estimate the rate of acceptance, convenience and experience on telemedicine usage among IT professionals. Materials and Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out among 162 IT professionals working in six IT companies which was choosed randomly from the IT companies in Chengalpattu division. Employee who have used telemedicine service were listed from all the six companies and were included in the study. From the list 162 employees were selected through simple random sampling. Selected employees were given a semi-structured questionnaire consisting of four sections to assess their acceptance, convenience and experience on telemedicine usage. The collected information was analyzed using SPSS software version 21.0. Qualitative variables will be expressed in proportions and Quantitative variables in Mean(SD) / Median (IQR). Chi-square test was applied. Results: 83(51.2%) male and 79(48.8%) female employees took part in the study. 56 participants (35%) of 162 participants accepted using telemedicine for medical consultation. 78 participants (48.1%) found it convenient to use the telemedicine applications, depicting that the applications are not user friendly. Only 34 participants (21%) were satisfied with their experience with telemedicine usage. Conclusion: Telemedicine was the saviour for those who were in need of medical service but was restricted due to pandemic/disease. But non-availability of user-friendly applications was found to barrier in accepting telemedicine service. In addition to it there are several other barriers that has to be found and addressed for successful telemedicine service across our country. Proper promotion is also needed to improve acceptance.