Background: Information and communication technology is used in the healthcare industry through telemedicine, which is valuable for sharing accurate data for the purposes of disease prevention, patient’s diagnosis, assessment, and treatment, and continuing medical professional training.
Objective: This study aimed at exploring knowledge, awareness and attitude of physician at Benha university hospital and a number of primary health care centers and units in Qalubia Governorate towards telemedicine
Subjects and methods: a cross-sectional survey that was conducted on 194 physicians recruited from Benha University Hospital and a number of Primary Health Care Centers and Units in Qalubia Governorate from first January 2023 to end February 2023 through a self-administered questionnaire, which assessed physicians’ access to computers and literacy, knowledge, perceptions and willingness of telemedicine adoption.
Results: A total of 194 participants of which 66% were males and 34% were females had completed the questionnaire, nearly about 64%of physicians always or often use laptops at home and search for information online, 44.3% had average familiarity with telemedicine technology, while 73.2% had low familiarity with telemedicine guidelines. While more than 90% of the participants perceived telemedicine as a viable approach for providing medical care services to patients, 56.7% reported that the lack of consultation between IT experts and clinicians and more than 80% reported that lack of suitable training in the use of telemedicine equipments, patients’ confidentiality and privacy concerns hampers telemedicine adoption.
Conclusion: Even while telemedicine seems like a good idea and is generally embraced by medical professionals, there are still several challenges with its use and due to many obstacles, this study suggests that the government and related authorities should address such problems and seek its answers to put the cornerstone for its solution.