Telepsychiatry exposure, interest, and intention to use among young Psychiatrists in the Philippines

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE@#This was a descriptive study to determine the telepsychiatry exposure, interest, and intention to use among young psychiatrists in the Philippines in December 2014.@*METHODOLOGY@#This was done through a 14 to 25 item online survey adapted from Glover et al. (2013)1. Through purposive sampling, the population of third and fourth year residents and graduates within the last two years of accredited psychiatry training institutions was included in the study.@*RESULTS@#Seventeen young psychiatrists participated. Exposure to telepsychiatry of the respondents varied with 10 (58.82%) having had independent study, three (17.65%) having had didactics, and 11 (64.71%) having had awareness about telepsychiatry initiatives in their training institution. Ten respondents (58.82%) expressed interest in telepsychiatry as well as the importance and usefulness of telepsychiatry exposure. Despite this, only six (35.29%) young psychiatrists thought that telepsychiatry should be part of the residency training curriculum. As for intention to use, only eight (47.06%) respondents expressed receptiveness to it, two did not (11.76%), and seven were undecided (41.18%).@*CONCLUSION@#Though more than half of the respondents had exposure to telepsychiatry and considered it interesting and relevant, less than half of them had any actual intention to use it in their clinical practice.