Self-reported perceptions and knowledge of telemedicine in medical students and professionals who enrolled in an online course in Peru

The evolution of medical education in the era of Covid-19 and beyond: a longitudinal study

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about profound transformations in nearly all aspects of life, leaving its impact on the global community as a whole. Nowhere has this transformation been more pronounced than in the sphere of education, including medical education. Healthcare professionals and educators faced the daunting task of preparing the next generation of practicing physicians amid the ongoing public health crisis.

METHODS

The study involved students from three different Chinese medical universities (groups A, B, and C, respectively). The research employed two instruments: a Scale of Satisfaction with Simulation-Based Education and a Scale of Satisfaction with Telemedicine Competency Education. Data were collected at three different time points: 2020-2021 (online/distance learning), 2021-2022 (hybrid learning), and 2022-2023 (traditional face-to-face learning).

RESULTS

It was revealed that students demonstrated the highest level of satisfaction during the hybrid learning period (Time Point 2), while online/distance learning (Time Point 1) received the lowest ratings. Statistical analysis indicated significant differences in satisfaction levels across the various time points.

CONCLUSIONS

Hybrid learning emerged as the preferred method among students, yielding the highest level of satisfaction. Online/distance learning during the 2020-2021 academic year and traditional face-to-face instruction in 2022-2023 exhibited lower satisfaction levels. The research findings underscore the practical significance of hybrid learning for students in medical educational programs, suggesting its potential for optimizing educational curricula and resources within academic institutions.

Telemedicine-medical "snack community"-PHS ecosystem: Insights into the double-edged sword role of telemedicine in clinical practice and medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond

Telemedicine has gained tremendous development during the COVID-19 pandemic. With deblocking and opening, telemedicine accelerates the evolvution of the medical "snack community" and undermines the perception of medical students and staff, which promotes the incidence of psychosocial-related disorders. Moreover, the inconsistent telemedicine adaptability between medical workers and patients aggravates the doctor-patient conflict due to the aging population and COVID-19 squeal. Telemedicine is colliding with the national healthcare system, whose synchronization with conventional medical service is crucial to coordinate the relationship among medical payment, patient privacy and qualifications of clinicians. This study puts more emphasis on the double-edged sword role of telemedicine in clinical practice and medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Overall, while telemedicine has demonstrated its utility in health care throughout the COVID pandemic, it is pretty critical to continue evaluating the efficacy and limitations of telemedicine in order to maintain equal access to medical service and high-quality medical education. A new concept as telemedicine-medical "snack community"-PHS ecosystem, where the psychological health education system and partners healthcare system with enough bandwidth, especially 5G technology, could optimize the effect of telemedicine on medical practice and education, is proposed.

Awareness and Perception of Telemedicine Among the General Population in the Central, Northern, and Western Regions of Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND

 Telemedicine is a paradigm shift that utilizes technology for remote healthcare delivery, improving the quality of care.

OBJECTIVES

This study aims to assess the general population's awareness and perception regarding telemedicine in the central, northern, and western regions of Saudi Arabia.

METHODS

 A web-based cross-sectional study was conducted in the central, northern, and western regions of Saudi Arabia from January 2024 to May 2024. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data, including sociodemographic information and questions to assess participants' awareness and perception of telemedicine. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 27 (Released 2020; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States), with significance at p < 0.05.

RESULTS

 Out of 414 adult participants in the study, 264 (63.8%) were female, and 205 (49.5%) were below the age of 25. Approximately a quarter of the participants reported being very or moderately familiar with telemedicine. Furthermore, most participants (80.5%, 243) expressed their willingness to try telemedicine. The most common barriers to telemedicine practice were concerns about diagnostic reliability, resistance from physicians, and patient resistance. The study found no significant associations between participants' sociodemographic variables, their familiarity with telemedicine, and their readiness to adopt it.

CONCLUSION

While there is a low level of awareness and knowledge regarding telemedicine among general populations in Saudi Arabia, there is generally a positive perception and willingness to adopt telemedicine for improved healthcare delivery. Addressing barriers to adopting such technology is crucial to ensure the country's successful implementation and widespread acceptance of telemedicine.

Assessing Telemedicine Competency Among Doctors in a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Questionnaire-Based Cross-Sectional Study

Background The use of telemedicine in contemporary healthcare has become essential, providing a novel method of delivering care, particularly in rural and underdeveloped areas. This study assesses the telemedicine awareness, knowledge, attitude, skills, and challenges among physicians working in tertiary care hospitals. Methods A cross-sectional study was carried out with 100 doctors from diverse specialties at a tertiary care institution. The questionnaire evaluated five domains: telemedicine awareness and knowledge, telemedicine attitude, telemedicine technology skills, telemedicine utilization patterns, and perceived barriers and educational needs. Results The study indicated that 95% of participants were aware of telemedicine. However, knowledge gaps remained, particularly in legal and ethical concerns (50%) and international rules (40%). Eighty percent of respondents had a favorable opinion of telemedicine, and 85% thought it might improve patient care in rural regions. The proficiency level of telemedicine users was variable: 60% of them had previous experience, and 70% of them rated their proficiency as intermediate or better. According to utilization patterns, 50% of telemedicine users used it at least once a week, primarily for remote monitoring (30%) and video consultations (60%). The study found that 90% of respondents had a high demand for training and educational opportunities. The absence of infrastructure (65%), worries about data security (55%), and patient acceptability (30%) were the main obstacles found. It also highlighted how important it is to have defined policies and collaborate across disciplines. Conclusion The study identifies a good attitude toward telemedicine among doctors as well as a need for improved training and infrastructure. It is essential to tackle these requirements and obstacles in order to successfully incorporate telemedicine into healthcare systems.

Analysis of the virtual healthcare model in Latin America: a systematic review of current challenges and barriers

Background

The virtual care model can be used in all aspects of healthcare, such as prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of most medical and surgical conditions. The objective of this study was to identify the current barriers to implementing and consolidating the virtual healthcare model, of "telemedicine", in Latin American countries.

Methods

A systematic review was conducted through four databases: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Virtual Health, including articles in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. A combination of Boolean operators was used with the terms "telemedicine", "telehealth", "telecare", "home care services", "remote care" and the name of each Latin American country. Articles published from January 2020 to January 2023 that reported on the barriers and challenges of using the virtual care model were included.

Results

Nineteen articles were included. Brazil (n=5) and Argentina (n=4) were the countries where there was the greatest interest to explore barriers to virtual care. The barriers identified were categorized into five main themes: (I) technological and technical issues; (II) absence of a physical examination; (III) patient's negative perceptions; (IV) negative perceptions among healthcare professionals; and (V) structural obstacles and those associated with the healthcare system. The main obstacles reported were connectivity problems, lack of a complete physical examination, issues of privacy, high risk of medical malpractice, and absence of local regulation.

Conclusions

The virtual care model is a safe and cost-effective alternative for the delivery of health services, with multiple benefits for patients and their families. The indication for the use of virtual care should be based on a risk model for patient prioritization. Likewise, the analysis of the main barriers and benefits is fundamental to consolidating this model of care and ensuring its expansion in the region.

Empowering the digital health workforce in Latin America in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: the Peruvian case

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed significant gaps in healthcare access, quality, and the urgent need for enhancing the capacity of digital health human resources, particularly in Latin America. During the pandemic, online courses and telehealth initiatives supported by governmental agencies, the Pan American Health Organization, and other public and private resources, have played a crucial role in meeting training demands. This article discusses the role of capacity building programs in digital health within the context of Latin America, with a specific focus on the Peruvian case. We highlight the development of digital health competencies and related policies, while also describing selected experiences related to capacity building in this field. Additionally, we discuss the pivotal role of collaborative partnerships among institutions and countries, emphasizing the importance of culturally relevant training programs in digital health. These initiatives have the potential to accelerate training and research opportunities in Latin America, drawing on the involvement of government agencies, non-governmental organizations, industry, universities, professional societies, and communities.

Knowledge and Perception of Telemedicine among Medical Students of the University of Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria

Background

Telemedicine has promising potential to address the challenges faced by healthcare systems in developing countries, in providing equitable access to quality care. However, the practice of telemedicine is generally poor in these countries. The success of telemedicine like any technology depends on numerous factors including users' knowledge and perceptions. Hence, this study aimed to examine the knowledge and perceptions of telemedicine among medical students at the University of Jos.

Methodology

This was a cross-sectional study among 305 clinical medical students selected through a stratified sampling technique. A self-administered questionnaire consisting of a 28-item 5-point Likert response scale was used to collect data, comprising 13 items for knowledge, 8 for the perception of benefits, and 7 for the perception of ease of use of telemedicine. Data was analyzed using IBM-SPSS.

Results

One hundred and eleven (36.4%) participants had good knowledge of telemedicine, while 113 (37.1%) had a good perception of the benefits and 103 (33.8%) had a good perception of the ease of use. Respondents with a good knowledge of telemedicine were about five times more likely (OR = 5.24, 95% CI = 3.15 - 8.69) to have a good perception of the benefits and about eight times more likely (OR = 8.33, 95% CI = 4.57 - 14.26) to have a good perception of ease of use.

Conclusions

Few medical students possess desirable levels of knowledge and perceptions of telemedicine which portrays a gap in the medical education curriculum. Therefore, training, and educational opportunities are recommended to improve their knowledge and perception of telemedicine.

Integrating Telehealth for Strengthening Health Systems in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Perspective from Peru

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the government to rapidly modify its legal framework to adopt telemedicine and promote the implementation of telehealth services to meet the healthcare needs of patients in Peru. In this paper, we aim to review the main changes to the regulatory framework and describe selected initiatives to promote the telehealth framework that emerged in Peru during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, we discuss the challenges to integrate telehealth services for strengthening health systems in Peru. The Peruvian telehealth regulatory framework began in 2005, and in subsequent years, laws and regulations were established that sought to progressively implement a national telehealth network. However, mainly local initiatives were deployed. In this sense, significant challenges remain to be addressed, such as infrastructure in healthcare centers, including high-speed Internet connectivity; infostructure of health-information systems, including interoperability with electronic medical records; monitoring and evaluation of the national agenda for the health sector in 2020-2025; expanding the healthcare workforce in terms of digital health; and developing the capacities of healthcare users on health literacy, including digital aspects. In addition, there is enormous potential for telemedicine as a key strategy to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and to improve access to rural and hard-to-reach areas and populations. There is thus an urgent need to effectively implement an integrated national telehealth system to address sociocultural issues and strengthen the competencies of human resources in telehealth and digital health in Peru.

The Use of Telemedicine in Medical Education and Patient Care

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated and expanded the adoption of telemedicine globally. This allowed telemedicine to engage medical students in patient care and ensured continuity of care for vulnerable patients. In this review, the history of telemedicine and some of its applications in medical education were reviewed. Furthermore, we also shed light on how to incorporate telemedicine into several curricula and the strategies used to include it. The article also explored how to evaluate telemedicine and the major facilitators and barriers any medical and educational institution must address when using telemedicine. At the end of the review, we explored the future promises telemedicine has for medical education.

Awareness, knowledge, attitude, and skills regarding telemedicine among Syrian healthcare providers: A cross-sectional study

Background

After the widespread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) around the globe, it was imperative to establish preventative measures to restrict the virus's transmission. The purpose of this research was to present an overview of the awareness, knowledge, attitude, and abilities of Syrian physicians about telemedicine technology.

Methods

An online cross-sectional study was conducted from April 1 to May 15, 2022. The questionnaire was taken from published study, and the inclusion criteria consist the Syrian doctors who worked in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly those who had direct contact with patients.

Results

Among 385 responses, 52.72% of them were females, 83.9% of them were aged less than 30 years old, and 66% were working in the governmental sector; 66% of participants have moderate knowledge about using computers and the internet, 80% have heard about telemedicine. Despite that, 95.1% of participants have not attended any training workshop on telemedicine, and most of them have reported no availability of a telemedicine unit in their department. Only 31.7% participants have shown high awareness of telemedicine. Furthermore, no significant correlation was identified between the academic level with the age and telemedicine awareness, knowledge, attitude, or computer skills. Despite that, there was an obvious correlation between age and computer skills (P-value < 0.05). There was a significant correlation between the medical specialty and awareness, and computer abilities, especially the anesthesiology (88.5 ± 5.2), (84 ± 8.7), respectively. Spearman's rho test showed mild positive significant association in various subscales (awareness and experience, experience and skills, knowledge and attitude, knowledge and skills, and attitude and skills).

Conclusion

The study results demonstrate that most of the participating clinical doctors have a neutral view of telemedicine, even though they do not know much about it and do not have considerable experience with it. It is practical to educate and train academic staff, practicing physicians, residents and medical students within the clinical stages about telemedicine.