Implementation and Application of Telemedicine in China: Cross-Sectional Study

Cui, Fangfang; Ma, Qianqian; He, Xianying; Zhai, Yunkai; Zhao, Jie; Chen, Baozhan; Sun, Dongxu; Shi, Jiachen; Cao, Mingbo; Wang, Zhenbo

doi:10.2196/18426

Cited by 64 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“… 14 Telemedicine may not be suitable for all medical conditions and should be used in collaboration with the conventional healthcare facilities. 7 , 18 Telemedicine has proven benefit in rapid triaging, tele-education, tele-rehabilitation, tele-psychiatry, monitoring of chronic diseases and tele-consultations among doctors for specialist opinion. 4 , 7 , 18 Also careful patient triaging is needed for patient satisfaction and ultimately the success of a program.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…7,18 Telemedicine has proven benefit in rapid triaging, tele-education, telerehabilitation, tele-psychiatry, monitoring of chronic diseases and tele-consultations among doctors for specialist opinion. 4,7,18 Also careful patient triaging is needed for patient satisfaction and ultimately the success of a program. 19 The greatest strength of this study is a good mix of all specialties with varied experiences, from different set ups and regions of the country as shown in Fig.…”

Section: A H E a D O F P R I N Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Is Telemedicine our cup of tea? A nationwide cross-sectional survey regarding doctors’ experience and perceptions

Alam

Malik

et al. 2021

Pak J Med Sci

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Objectives: To evaluate the experience and perceptions regarding Telemedicine and the perceived barriers among medical doctors. Methods: This cross-sectional survey was carried out by enrolling practicing doctors of Pakistan with experience of ≥6 months by sending a validated and piloted questionnaire through email. Data collection was done from 10th October to 9th November 2020 after taking ethical approval from the concerned authorities. Data was analysed using SPSS v. 19.0. Results: Two-hundred-forty responses were received with a response rate of 63%. Female participants (62.8%) were in majority and most of the participants were working in urban (88.5%) or semi-urban (9%) locality in either teaching (35.9%) or tertiary care hospitals (34.6%). Seventy-three percent of the doctors didn’t receive formal training with more than half of the doctors reporting non-availability of infrastructure and specific hardware. A large number of the participants were concerned regarding the non-availability of regulatory bodies, evaluations and accreditations of the service providers, the risks of malpractice, missed-diagnosis, prescription errors and medico-legal issues. The availability of specific infrastructure was statistically related to the hospital setup, locality and the specialty of the participants. Lack of technological literacy and infrastructure were considered the main constraints for the public in using telemedicine. Conclusion: Evidence of effectiveness of telemedicine across different fields is inconsistent and lacks technical, legal, cultural and ethical considerations. Inadequate training, low level of technological literacy and lack of infrastructure are the main barriers in implementing tele-health. High-quality evidence based studies are required for practical and long-term policies. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.5.3970 How to cite this:Alam L, Alam M, Malik AM, Faraid V. Is Telemedicine our cup of tea? A nationwide cross-sectional survey regarding doctors’ experience and perceptions. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(5):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.5.3970 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A H E a D O F P R I N Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is Telemedicine our cup of tea? A nationwide cross-sectional survey regarding doctors’ experience and perceptions

Alam

Malik

et al. 2021

Pak J Med Sci

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“…In the United States, 15 million people were supported by telemedicine in 2015, an increase of 50% compared with the number in 2013 [ 27 ]. In China, the average number of remote consultations from hospitals that provide telemedicine services reached 714 cases per hospital in 2018 [ 28 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of Telemedicine Services Based on a Regional Telemedicine Platform in China From 2014 to 2020: Longitudinal Trend Analysis

Cui¹,

He²,

Zhai³

et al. 2021

J Med Internet Res

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Background Telemedicine that combines information technology and health care augments the operational model of traditional medical services and brings new opportunities to the medical field. China promotes telemedicine with great efforts, and its practices in the deployment of telemedicine platforms and delivery of services have become important references for the research and development in this field. Objective Our work described in this paper focuses on a regional telemedicine platform that was built in 2014. We analyzed the system design scheme and remote consultations that were conducted via the system to understand the deployment and service delivery processes of a representative telemedicine platform in China. Methods We collected information on remote consultations conducted from 2015 to 2020 via the regional telemedicine platform that employs a centralized architectural system model. We used graphs and statistical methods to describe the changing trends of service volume of remote consultation, geographical and demographic distribution of patients, and waiting time and duration of consultations. The factors that affect consultation duration and patient referral were analyzed by multivariable linear regression models and binary logistic regression models, respectively. The attitudes toward telemedicine of 225 medical practitioners and 225 patients were collected using the snowball sampling method. Results The regional telemedicine platform covers all levels of medical institutions and hospitals in all 18 cities of Henan Province as well as some interprovince hospitals. From 2015 to 2020, 103,957 remote medical consultations were conducted via the platform with an annual increasing rate of 0.64%. A total of 86.64% (90,069/103,957) of medical institutions (as clients) that applied for remote consultations were tier 1 or 2 and from less-developed regions; 65.65% (68,243/103,945) of patients who applied for remote consultations were aged over 50 years. The numbers of consultations were high for departments focusing in the treatment of chronic diseases such as neurology, respiratory medicine, and oncology. The invited experts were mainly experienced doctors with senior professional titles. Year of consultation, tier of hospital, consultation department, and necessity of patient referral were the main factors affecting the duration of consultations. In surveys, we found that 60.4% (136/225) of medical practitioners and 53.8% (121/225) of patients had high satisfaction and believed that telemedicine is of vital importance for the treatment of illness. Conclusions The development of telemedicine in China shows a growing trend and provides great benefits especially to medical institutions located in less developed regions and senior citizens who have less mobility. Cases of remote consultations are mainly for chronic diseases. At present, the importance and necessity of telemedicine are well recognized by both patients and medical practitioners. However, the waiting time needs to be further reduced to improve the efficiency of remote medical services.

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“…Many researchers have conducted surveys to measure the actual usage of telemedicine in hospital settings. For instance, a survey conducted in China states that 93.8% of tertiary hospitals implemented telemedicine services in various forms [27]. Moreover, Dorsey and Topol [28] reported that telemedicine will be increasingly implemented in different forms, such as mobile stroke units that connect an ambulance with the stroke team to provide images in the field, which saves time in the diagnosis to proceed directly with management.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Telemedicine for Musculoskeletal Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evaluating Readiness of Saudi Citizens

Alhamam¹,

Buhalim²,

Almakhayitah³

et al. 2021

Cureus

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Introduction: Since coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was announced as a global pandemic, it has become important to control the pandemic with several approaches, including limiting hospital visits. Telemedicine is a good option to help reduce in-person visits during the pandemic. Saudi Arabia has prepared for this pandemic by implementing applications, such as Tetamman and Seha. In this study, we aimed to determine the readiness of the Saudi population to use telemedicine for musculoskeletal care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from July 2020 to October 2020. The study used a predesigned, self-administered questionnaire with acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's α=0.79). A questionnaire with 30 questions was distributed electronically and randomly to the Saudi population. The included participants were Arabic speakers, Saudis, and men or women age 18 years or older. Results: A total of 635 respondents, of which 250 were men (39.4%) and 385 were women (60.6%), completed the questionnaire. The most common region of residence was the Central region (41.6%), followed by the Eastern region (28%). The proportions of patients who had knowledge about virtual clinics and who used a virtual clinic during the COVID-19 pandemic were 47.6% and 30.4%, respectively. The mean overall attitude score was 24.4 (standard deviation, 9.9) of 35 points; negative, neutral, and positive attitudes were reported among 9.9%, 54.3%, and 35.7% of respondents, respectively. Compared with the older population, younger-aged participants (≤25 years) had significantly more positive attitudes about virtual clinics (χ 2 =6.068; p=0.048). Those respondents who had never been married showed significantly more positive attitudes about virtual clinics compared with those who had been married (χ 2 =6.695; p=0.035). Conclusions: The studied Saudi population shows a moderate level of acceptance of the concept of using telemedicine in musculoskeletal conditions, but some issues about patient access and understanding of the technology remain unaddressed.

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Implementation and Application of Telemedicine in China: Cross-Sectional Study

Cited by 64 publications

References 39 publications

Is Telemedicine our cup of tea? A nationwide cross-sectional survey regarding doctors’ experience and perceptions

Is Telemedicine our cup of tea? A nationwide cross-sectional survey regarding doctors’ experience and perceptions

Application of Telemedicine Services Based on a Regional Telemedicine Platform in China From 2014 to 2020: Longitudinal Trend Analysis

Telemedicine for Musculoskeletal Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evaluating Readiness of Saudi Citizens

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