A Model for Telemedicine Adoption in Remote Healthcare Settings

Telemedicine is potentially a useful conduit for health-care given in resource-constrained environments. Affordable telemedicine services face challenges of slow adoption due partly to a lack of models to support its acceptance and use. In spite of the challenges, interest in telemedicine for health care has elevated the importance of technologies that predict its acceptance and use. This study examined the factors important for predicting healthcare workers intention to use Telemedicine in remote healthcare settings. A field survey of health care workers was undertaken to reveal factors for telemedicine adoption and use in Uganda. The results of this study contribute by showing that besides technology, social-economic factors in telemedicine are vital in influencing its adoption and usage of the services. It is thus essential that organizations using or intending to introduce telemedicine services be mindful of the social-economic factors of staff training and sensitization, supportive government policies laws protecting users, affordability of the services, organizational change management, and the internet.