eHealth and telemedicine: Practices and beliefs among healthcare professionals and medical students at a medical university

Abstract

Digitalization affects almost every aspect of modern daily life including healthcare delivery. Successful adoption and sustainable integration of information technology-based eHealth and telemedicine concepts in clinical practice depend on constant evaluation of end user needs, proficiencies, and preferences. We therefore assessed how current and future healthcare professionals perceived health technology solutions and whether their perceptions differed. We conducted an online survey among a purposive sample of employees and students at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. The structured questionnaire collected self-reported practices and beliefs in the context of eHealth and telemedicine among 905 participants (59.0% females), of which 48.4% were employees and 51.6% were students. Participants expressed moderate knowledge of eHealth and telemedicine concepts with higher levels among employees compared to students (both: p<0.05). Compared to employees, students were less convinced that online health information improves patient knowledge (p<0.001), but were more optimistic that telemedicine reduces healthcare costs (p<0.05). Participants doubted that telemedicine services would enhance the doctor-patient relationship and raised concerns regarding data security and privacy issues. Accordingly, quantitative context analysis of free text comments revealed that the four most frequently mentioned themes were related to issues concerning data privacy and security, questions of responsibility, doctor-patient interaction, and reliability of information. This study provides valuable insights into how current and future healthcare professionals differ in their perceptions regarding eHealth and telemedicine. These findings raise awareness of the need to bridge the gap between digital age groups and professional groups, especially in clinical healthcare delivery in a clocked-through, strenuous academic setting as found at a medical university.

Using Telemedicine for Outpatient Geriatric Care During the Novel Coronavirus Outbreak: Experience from the First 15 Patients

“…One of the reasons could be reduced reliability of information provided due to a lack of physical examination. 14 In their open-ended feedback, the overall sentiment was that a lack of physical examination might not provide them with accurate clinical findings, hence, leading to a less than ideal management. Given the nature of telemedicine, consultations that require physical examinations (e.g.…”

Validation of an e-health readiness assessment framework for developing countries

“…e-Health has also been referred to as forms of prevention and education, diagnostics, therapy and care delivered through digital technology independently of time and place [3]. As such e-health has the potential to improve quality of healthcare services [4], resulting in at least 125 developed and developing countries demonstrating continued interest in e-health uptake and use [5,6].…”

The Digital Healthcare Act – a Turning Point in the German Digitisation Strategy?

“…Die Digitalisierung der Medizin birgt ein großes Potenzial für bestehende und künftige Herausforderungen im Bereich der nationalen und internationalen Gesundheitsversorgung [1,2]. Bei der Implementierung digitaler Lösungen bergen die derzeitigen politischen, juristischen und strukturellen Rahmenbedingungen dabei verschiedene Herausforderungen für das gleichzeitig heterogene und stark segmentierte deutsche Gesundheitssystem [3].…”