m-Health: A Critical Analysis of Awareness, Perception, and Attitude of Healthcare Among Providers in Himachal Pradesh, North India

Introduction: Providing healthcare in remote mountainous areas is challenging. The increasing availability of mobile connectivity needs to be exploited by offering healthcare through a mobile medium, popularly known as mobile health (m-health). It is essential to understand the awareness, perception, and attitude of healthcare providers (HCPs) in deploying m-health. Their outlook on new technologies influences patient adoption. Reports on attitudes regarding healthcare through mobile phones are now confined to views from the recipient. Materials and Methods: This study from August 1 to September 30, 2014 analyzed the views of 592 HCPs (12.3% of all HCPs) in Himachal Pradesh, India. They included faculty and students of the two medical colleges, as well as HCPs from all of the 12 districts. Results: Although Himachal Pradesh has the highest teledensity of all states in India (117.6%), only 58.8% of HCPs (of those surveyed, 72% lived in suburban areas and 24.8% in Shimla, the state capital) would easily recommend m-health. Self-perceived ability to use mobile services was 85%. Fifty-nine percent used mobile devices for social networking, and 52.4% used Wi-Fi. Sixty-one percent of those interviewed were females, and 39% were males. Conclusions: The transformative potential of m-health hinges on its acceptance and use by all stakeholders. The study suggests that as HCPs in Himachal Pradesh are already using mobile value added services and are highly information technology literate, addressing their specific concerns could lead to use of m-health in Himachal Pradesh. Healthcare delivery in Himachal Pradesh is still suboptimal. With increasing connectivity, awareness, and commencement of telemedicine services in Himachal Pradesh, m-health has the potential to be a reality.