Evaluation of telemedicine and health tourism awareness of healthcare professionals

Yıl 2024, Cilt: 5 Sayı: 2, 75 - 83, 31.05.2024

Şamil Çabuk , Hasan Hüseyin Avcı , Sema Avcı

https://doi.org/10.47482/acmr.1415775

Öz

Although electronic infrastructures save time and service effort in delivering health services, we need more information about regional service providers' attitudes and deficiencies towards these technologies. Therefore, in our study, we wanted to evaluate the attitudes of healthcare professionals towards the use of electronic infrastructure in health tourism and their awareness of the use of telemedicine in general service delivery. For this purpose, a cross-sectional study was conducted among 108 healthcare professionals, and the data obtained from the survey was analyzed. According to our results, the preference for post-examination checks and the use of electronic infrastructures in health tourism are affected by gender and education. As healthcare professionals age, their knowledge of telemedicine increases, but their preference for using technology-based infrastructure or technological devices decreases. Our implications include eliminating deficiencies in health policies by effectively matching local needs and global expectations, especially health tourism and electronic health service provision.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Healthcare Education, Medical Tourism, Telemedicine

Etik Beyan

The study was initiated with the permission of Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Committee numbered 25.53.2023/12, and the decision numbered 28.07.2023/55 of Mersin Provincial Directorate of Health. Researchers declare that relevant guidelines and regulations performed all methods, and that informed consent was obtained from all subjects.

Kaynakça

• Zhong L, Deng B, Morrison AM, Coca-Stefaniak JA, Yang L. Medical, health and wellness tourism research-a review of the literature (1970-2020) and research agenda. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18(20):10875.
• Karimi M, Brazier J. Health, Health-related quality of life, and quality of life: What is the difference? Pharmacoeconomics. 2016;34(7):645-9.
• Roman M, Roman M, Wojcieszak-Zbierska M. health tourism-subject of scientific research: A literature review and cluster analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;20(1):480
• Jiang L, Wu H, Song Y. Diversified demand for health tourism matters: From a perspective of the intra-industry trade. Soc Sci Med. 2022;293:114630.
• Bashshur RL. On the definition and evaluation of telemedicine. Telemed J. 1995;1(1):19-30.
• Alajlani M, Clarke M. Effect of culture on acceptance of telemedicine in Middle Eastern countries: case study of Jordan and Syria. Telemed J E Health. 2013;19(4):305-11.
• Grigsby J, Sanders JH. Telemedicine: where it is and where it’s going. Ann Intern Med. 1998;129(2):123-7.
• Hjelm NM. Benefits and drawbacks of telemedicine. J Telemed Telecare. 2005;11(2):60-70.
• Hollander JE, Carr BG. Virtually Perfect? Telemedicine for Covid-19. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(18):1679-81.
• Gu D, Humbatova G, Xie Y, Yang X, Zolotarev O, Zhang G. Different Roles of telehealth and telemedicine on medical tourism: An empirical study from Azerbaijan. Healthcare (Basel). 2021;9(8).
• Hong YA. Medical tourism and telemedicine: A new frontier of an old business. J Med Internet Res. 2016;18(5):e115.
• Zywietz C. Communication and interoperability for serial comparison in continuous health care--the new challenges. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2004;108:172-80.
• Martinez D, Ferriol P, Tous X, Cabrer M, Prats M. Virtual health platform for medical tourism purposes. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2008;137:269-74.
• Ambrosino N, Makhabah DN, Sutanto YS. Tele-medicine in respiratory diseases. Multidiscip Respir Med. 2017;12:9.
• Li JO, Liu H, Ting DSJ, Jeon S, Chan RVP, Kim JE, et al. Digital technology, tele-medicine and artificial intelligence in ophthalmology: A global perspective. Prog Retin Eye Res. 2021;82:100900.
• Bentivegna E, Tassorelli C, De Icco R, Sances G, Martelletti P. Telehealthcare in migraine medicine: from diagnosis to monitoring treatment outcomes. Expert Rev Neurother. 2022;22(3):237-43.
• Gupta D. Tele-fellowships for addiction medicine. J Opioid Manag. 2020;16(5):313-4.
• Shih FJ, Shih FJ, Pan YJ, Chen HM, Wang SS. Dilemma of applying telehealth for overseas organ transplantation: comparison on perspectives of health professionals and e-health information and communication technologists in Taiwan. Transplant Proc. 2014;46(4):1019-21.
• Kane-Gill SL, Rincon F. Expansion of telemedicine services: Telepharmacy, telestroke, teledialysis, tele-emergency medicine Crit Care Clin. 2019;35(3):519-33.
• Muili AO, Mustapha MJ, Offor MC, Oladipo HJ. Emerging roles of telemedicine in dementia treatment and care. Dement Neuropsychol. 2023;17:e20220066.
• Sorensen HT. Patients with chronic diseases who travel: Need for global access to timely health care data. Clin Epidemiol. 2022;14:513-9.
• Shaw CD. How can healthcare standards be standardised? BMJ Qual Saf. 2015;24(10):615-9.
• Choudhary N, Chakravarty K, Kharbanda PS, Lal V, Baishya J. Satisfaction and effectiveness of tele-medicine in follow-up of people with epilepsy in a resource-poor setting during COVID-19. Epilepsy Behav. 2022;128:108569.