Institute of Clinical Trials, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, People's Republic of China; West China School of Public Health, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, People's Republic of China.
West China School of Public Health, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, People's Republic of China.
Int J Med Inform. 2017 Dec;108:13-21. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2017.09.009. Epub 2017 Sep 22.
Telehealth aims to revolutionize health care by migrating health care from hospitals and satellite clinics directly into the home and onto mobile devices. Telehealth has the potential to increase public access to healthcare in China, where large segments of the population remain underserved, yet little is known about current attitudes and use of telehealth in the country.
Our aim was to determine attitudes and use of telehealth in China among medical professionals and patients, as well as identify factors that may affect its use.
Using a custom-designed questionnaire, we performed a cross-sectional survey of medical professionals, medical students and patients at three large hospitals in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. We used a structural model to analyze the influence of factors that may affect use of telehealth.
Of 600 questionnaires that were distributed, 550 (96.49%) were analyzed. Most respondents (63.28%) were familiar with using telehealth to "schedule medical appointments/pay medical fees online", but relatively few (28.55%) used this feature. Nearly half of respondents were familiar with the concept of a "virtual visit" (46.18%), but only 12.18% had ever engaged in such visits. Medical professionals and students generally showed higher awareness and greater use of telehealth than patients. The strongest concern about telehealth among respondents was "authenticity and reliability of data from remote monitoring of patients" (75.17%). The proportion of respondents concerned about the potential disadvantages of telehealth was highest among students and lowest among patients. Awareness and use of telehealth were associated with previous experience with health-related use of the Internet and experience with traditional forms of telehealth, but not with social status or attitude toward telehealth.
Medical professionals and patients alike in China have a high awareness of telehealth, primarily traditional forms of telehealth, but only a small percentage actually use it. Patients have much lower awareness and use of telehealth than medical professionals and medical students, though they have generally positive attitudes towards telehealth. Telehealth is still in its infancy in China, and the environment for its development is largely favorable among current and future medical professionals.
远程医疗旨在通过将医疗保健从医院和卫星诊所直接转移到家庭和移动设备上来彻底改变医疗服务。远程医疗有可能增加中国的公众获得医疗保健的机会，因为中国的大部分人口仍然服务不足，但目前对该国远程医疗的态度和使用情况知之甚少。
我们旨在确定中国医疗专业人员和患者对远程医疗的态度和使用情况，并确定可能影响其使用的因素。
我们在中国四川成都的三家大医院对医疗专业人员、医学生和患者进行了一项横断面调查，使用定制的问卷。我们使用结构模型分析了可能影响远程医疗使用的因素的影响。
在分发的 600 份问卷中，有 550 份（96.49%）进行了分析。大多数受访者（63.28%）熟悉使用远程医疗“在线预约/支付医疗费用”，但使用该功能的人相对较少（28.55%）。近一半的受访者熟悉“虚拟就诊”的概念（46.18%），但只有 12.18%曾进行过此类就诊。医疗专业人员和学生对远程医疗的认识和使用普遍高于患者。受访者对远程医疗最关注的问题是“远程监测患者数据的真实性和可靠性”（75.17%）。对远程医疗潜在弊端感到担忧的受访者比例在学生中最高，在患者中最低。对远程医疗的认识和使用与以前使用互联网进行健康相关的经验以及对传统形式的远程医疗的经验有关，但与社会地位或对远程医疗的态度无关。
中国的医疗专业人员和患者对远程医疗的认识度都很高，主要是传统形式的远程医疗，但实际上只有一小部分人在使用。尽管患者对远程医疗的认识度和使用率均低于医疗专业人员和医学生，但他们普遍对远程医疗持积极态度。远程医疗在中国仍处于起步阶段，在当前和未来的医疗专业人员中，其发展环境在很大程度上是有利的。
