Telemedicine Acceptance and User Experience: A Gap to Be Addressed?

Abstract

Introduction: Telemedicine is constantly evolving which involves the transfer of, medical information over the phone or net with the aim of consultation. Advancements and drop in the cost of information & communication technologies have boomed the interest in the application of telemedicine. Objective: To estimate the rate of acceptance, convenience and experience of telemedicine usage among IT professionals. Methodology: This cross-sectional study among 162 IT professionals working in 4 level V CMMI IT companies in Chengalpattu. The employee who has used telemedicine were enlisted and 162 employees were selected through simple random sampling from them. Through a semi-structured questionnaire data was collected and analyzed using SPSS software version 21.0. RESULTS: 56 participants (35%) of 162 participants accepted using telemedicine for medical consulta-tion. 78 participants (48.1%) found it convenient to use the telemedicine applications, depicting that the applications are not user friendly. Only 34 participants (21%) were satisfied with their experience with telemedicine usage. Conclusion: Acceptance of telemedicine is low, despite its advantages. Most of the users find it incon-venient and are dissatisfied with it. The development of user-friendly applications can improve ac-ceptance. Meanwhile, promotion for the application is needed to reach the public.