Background and Aims
Telemedicine is the delivery of healthcare services from distance using information and communication technology. It helps in overcoming the geographical physical barrier, increasing access to the healthcare services. Telemedicine has been growing in Nepal, with several hospitals and medical organizations providing services since 2006. COVID‐19 pandemic ignited significant interests in it, which previously remained unnoticed, realizing its importance for the present and future. The objective of this study was to evaluate the knowledge and attitude toward telemedicine among medical students in Nepal.
Methods
An observational study among medical students in 19 medical colleges in Nepal was performed from May to June using Google forms. The survey consisted of 27 questions including information on demography and telemedicine exposure, its status in Nepal, interest, and plans for its future utilization.
Results
Of 146 total surveyed students, 77.4% (n = 113) provided their views regarding telemedicine. Among students with knowledge of telemedicine, only 8.8% (n = 10) had attended some training. Only 6% (n = 4) of those who had previously consulted through telemedicine labeled their experience as poor. Exactly 88.5% (n = 100) were not satisfied with present telemedicine practices and coverage and 43.4% (n = 49) were optimistic about using telemedicine in future. Irrespective of location of medical colleges (Kathmandu Valley or outside) or levels of study (preclinical or clinical), students had similar knowledge and attitude regarding telemedicine.
Conclusion
The participants have good knowledge regarding the importance of telemedicine but only few of them are educated regarding its usage. Despite limited exposure to telemedicine, participants advocate for expansion and wide use of telemedicine due to economy, technological advancement, and topographic diversities. Internet, sense of reliability, privacy issue, and lack of proper curriculum seem to have raised question on their positive attitude. Formal and structured education may enable optimistic aspirants to integrate telemedicine skills with medical care delivery with ease.
This paper attempts to formulate Inverse Gaussian probability model to describe the distribution of the age specific fertility rates among Nepalese mothers. The average age of child bearing has been found to be 26.12 years whereas child bearing starts at the age of 15.82 years. Estimated total fertility rate (TFR) has been found to be 2.60 against the observed value of 2.6 per woman. The coefficient of determination and chi-square values suggest that the model found to be good fit to the Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys data. Findings may help researchers and policy makers for applying the model in order to obtain the descriptive statistics for policy interventions.
In this paper, polynomial models have been formulated to describe the distribution pattern of age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) and forward-cumulative ASFRs of Nepali mothers. The former follows the bi-quadratic polynomial and the latter follows the quadratic one. Velocity and elasticity equations of the fitted models have been formulated. The areas covered by the curves of the fitted models have been evaluated, and the area covered by the curve of ASFRs is equivalent to the total fertility rate (TFR). Furthermore, the mode of the fitted ASFRs has been estimated. To test the stability and validity of fitted models, cross validity prediction power, shrinkage of the model, F-test statistics and the coefficient of determination have been applied.
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