Awareness and attitudes of student youth to digital medicine

Abstract

Introduction. The digitalization of medicine is one of the priority areas in country's development. The transition of healthcare to digital medicine objectively requires special knowledge from medical students and a willingness to use digital medicine capabilities. Aim. To study the relationships between student awareness in digital medicine and the level of education they receive; to evaluate the level of engagement and readiness to use telemedicine technologies depending on the educational level. Material and Methods. The study was conducted by an in-person questionnaire survey among the students of Siberian State Medical University and Tomsk Medical and Pharmaceutical College. Based on the survey's results, the primary database was created using the EpiData 3.1 program. Statistical analysis of data was carried out using the SPSS 13 package. To compare the frequencies, the Pearson χ2 criteria and the Fisher exact test, both two-sided, were used. Results and discussion. The survey showed that only a part of the respondents was aware of digital medicine issues. The respondent students most often used e-health resources for search purposes. The analysis of statistical data revealed a correlation between awareness, attitude to digital medicine, and education level. The university students were more aware and open-minded to the potential use of digital medicine resources than the college students. Conclusion. Young professionals were insufficiently informed in the field of digital medicine. Despite the positive attitude towards digital medicine, medical students were not active enough in using digital medicine capabilities. Most of the respondents believed that for the time being, the capabilities of digital medicine were limited. Many of the respondents raised concerns about healthcare data security.