Telemedicine readiness and acceptability among resident physicians of a tertiary government hospital: A cross-sectional analytic study

ABSTRACT

Background@#Multiple international studies found that Telemedicine is acceptable to physicians and healthcare teams. However, there are no available studies to determine if the residents of a tertiary hospital are ready and welcoming to this new approach.@*Objective@#To assess telemedicine readiness and acceptability among resident physicians of East Avenue Medical Center.@*Methods@#This cross-sectional study recruited 139 East Avenue Medical Center (EAMC) resident physicians using a web-based questionnaire. The majority of respondents were female (63.31%), with a mean age of 29.99 ± 2.45 years and a mean duration of training of 23 (11 to 34). Data were analyzed to determine readiness based on technological resource availability, hardware and software skills, and acceptability using a modified and validated questionnaire.@*Results@#The majority have Smartphones 125 (89.93%) and Personal Computers 122 (87.77%) and have access to mobile data 128 (92.09%) and Wi-Fi 119 (85.61%). Mean perceived device and software skills were 3.28 ± 0.58 and 3.38 ± 0.56, respectively. The overall acceptability was 2.88 ± 0.58. Males have higher perceived device skills, however, both sexes have similar perceived software skills (p-value > 0.05) No correlation was seen between telemedicine acceptance with age and length of training.@*Conclusion@#This study demonstrated that EAMC resident physicians are equipped and ready for Telemedicine. Additionally, it demonstrated hesitancy but leaned towards telemedicine acceptance. Males have better perceived device skills, but readiness and acceptability are similar for both sexes in other domains. There is no correlation between age and length of training with readiness and acceptability.