Younis Eman A, El-Shenawy Amira K, Abdo Sanaa A E
Public Health and Community Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Tanta, 31257, Egypt.
J Egypt Public Health Assoc. 2025 Jun 17;100(1):13. doi: 10.1186/s42506-025-00194-y.
Telemedicine is a key factor in increasing patient accessibility, satisfaction with treatment, and quality of care, effectively utilizing physicians' time, and improving communication among medical experts. Despite global interest in telemedicine, there is limited research exploring users' perspectives on telemedicine within the context of Egyptian university hospitals. This study aims to examine physicians' and employees' levels of knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward telemedicine.
A cross-sectional study was conducted at Tanta University's medical campus from November 2023 to March 2024. One-thousand employees and physicians were surveyed. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. It consists of four sections: sociodemographic data, knowledge about telemedicine, attitude, and practice of telemedicine.
Half of physicians used telemedicine, and 38.2% of the employees have used e-health services. Applications of telemedicine included patients' investigations communicated through the Internet (76.4%), patients' management with drugs (71.4%), direct medical consultation between patient and physician (65.4%), second opinion consulting (57.6%), sharing experiences and new trends in medicine and surgery with other specialists in other countries (54%), and follow-up of patients through the electronic technologies (53%). About three-quarters of physicians and employees had a positive attitude toward telemedicine. The advantages reported include being easy to use (63%), reducing travel costs for patients (68.6%), and its importance during pandemics, e.g., COVID-19 (59.8%). However, our results indicated potential barriers when using telemedicine, including the need for training; elderly patients find difficulty dealing with technology, poor infrastructure, technical issues, difficulty for patients to express their feelings and communicate with physicians, and a lack of body language.
A considerable percentage of participants were already using telemedicine services, and they were satisfied with the telemedicine system. Though most participants had favorable attitudes toward telemedicine, potential barriers were reported, such as training for physicians and patients, difficulty dealing with technology, poor infrastructure, and technical issues. These findings underscore the need to develop and implement a regulatory framework that supports telemedicine adoption, including data protection, patient confidentiality, and reimbursement standards.
远程医疗是提高患者就医便利性、治疗满意度和医疗质量、有效利用医生时间以及改善医学专家之间沟通的关键因素。尽管全球对远程医疗都很感兴趣，但在埃及大学医院的背景下，探索用户对远程医疗看法的研究有限。本研究旨在调查医生和员工对远程医疗的知识水平、态度和实践情况。
2023年11月至2024年3月在坦塔大学医学园区进行了一项横断面研究。对1000名员工和医生进行了调查。使用自填式问卷收集数据。问卷包括四个部分：社会人口统计学数据、远程医疗知识、态度以及远程医疗实践。
一半的医生使用过远程医疗，38.2%的员工使用过电子健康服务。远程医疗的应用包括通过互联网进行患者检查（76.4%）、患者药物管理（71.4%）、患者与医生直接医疗咨询（65.4%）、二次意见咨询（57.6%）、与其他国家的其他专家分享医学和外科的经验及新趋势（54%）以及通过电子技术对患者进行随访（53%）。大约四分之三的医生和员工对远程医疗持积极态度。报告的优点包括易于使用（63%）、降低患者的差旅费（68.6%）以及在大流行期间（如新冠疫情）的重要性（59.8%）。然而，我们的结果表明使用远程医疗时存在潜在障碍，包括需要培训；老年患者在使用技术方面有困难、基础设施差、技术问题、患者难以表达感受和与医生沟通以及缺乏肢体语言。
相当比例的参与者已经在使用远程医疗服务，并且他们对远程医疗系统感到满意。尽管大多数参与者对远程医疗持积极态度，但也报告了一些潜在障碍，如医生和患者的培训、技术使用困难、基础设施差和技术问题。这些发现强调需要制定和实施支持远程医疗采用的监管框架，包括数据保护、患者保密和报销标准。
