Cardiac Unit, Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, Scotland, UK.
Telemed J E Health. 2012 Apr;18(3):219-24. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2011.0111. Epub 2012 Feb 24.
This study assessed the perceived usage of, and attitudes toward, communication technologies (mobile phone and texting, e-mail, and the World Wide Web) in patients attending a cardiology clinic with a view to guiding future health service redesign.
This was performed in a remote regional hospital serving both urban and rural populations. A self-completion questionnaire was completed by a convenience sample of 221 patients attending a general cardiology clinic. The questions asked about patients' access to and use of technology at home. Data collected also included age, gender, travel time to the clinic, mode of travel, and whether the respondent was accompanied to the clinic. Appropriate statistical tests were used with significance taken at the 0.05 level.
Age was the strongest predictor of use of communication technologies, with younger patients more likely to use e-mail, Web, mobile phone, and texting. However, frequency of use of e-mail was not related to age. It is encouraging that over 99% of patients used at least one communication technology.
This study has highlighted that there may be several potential barriers to the widespread implementation of communication technologies in general cardiology patients. Cognizance should be taken of these findings when attempting service redesign.
本研究评估了在心脏病学诊所就诊的患者对通信技术（手机和短信、电子邮件和万维网）的感知使用情况和态度，以期为未来的卫生服务重新设计提供指导。
本研究在一家为城市和农村人口服务的偏远地区医院进行。通过便利抽样，对 221 名普通心脏病学诊所的患者进行了自我完成的问卷调查。问卷询问了患者在家中使用技术的情况。收集的数据还包括年龄、性别、到诊所的旅行时间、旅行方式以及受访者是否有人陪同到诊所。使用了适当的统计检验，显著性水平为 0.05。
年龄是使用通信技术的最强预测因素，年轻患者更有可能使用电子邮件、网络、手机和短信。然而，电子邮件的使用频率与年龄无关。令人鼓舞的是，超过 99%的患者至少使用了一种通信技术。
本研究强调，在普通心脏病患者中广泛实施通信技术可能存在一些潜在障碍。在尝试服务重新设计时，应注意这些发现。
