DETERMINANTS OF THE INTENTION TO USE TELEMEDICINE: EVIDENCE FROM PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIANS

Abstract

While most studies have focused on analysing the results of telemedicine use (effectiveness, improved healthcare services and quality, etc.) 4, it is crucial to consider the determinants of its use in order to fully understand the issue. In other words, it is necessary to perform an ex-ante analysis of the determinants of telemedicine use, rather than an ex-post analysis of the determinants of the outcomes of telemedicine use. This article therefore presents an ex-ante analysis and aims to provide evidence on the determinants of telemedicine use. In order to understand the drivers of e-health adoption, a range of methodological and disciplinary approaches have been employed. Technology-oriented research has noted that Roger’s diffusion of innovations theory and Davis’s technology acceptance model (TAM) have been successfully used to understand the factors that explain ICT use by healthcare professionals 13, 14. Information systems and social-oriented research has highlighted that clinical practice may be intimately interconnected to a range of digital devices and forms of information 15, 16, 17, and to the ways that users use them in their private lives. Organisation-oriented research has shown that the structure of healthcare organisations, tasks, people policies, incentives and decision-making processes play a major role in explaining how medical professionals overcome barriers to ICT use 18. Ethical and legal-oriented research has suggested that changes in the nature of the doctor-patient relationship, the status of health informatics and the role of hardware/software providers tend to have an effect on ICT use by medical professionals 19. Finally, usability-oriented research has shown that compatibility between clinical ICT systems and physicians’ tasks, ICT support for information exchange, communication and collaboration in clinical practice, and interoperability and reliability also explain the success of ICT use in healthcare 20. Taking the above into account, this study analyses the determinants of MútuaTerrassa’s medical staff’s intention to use telemedicine. By doing so, the intention was to attain a two-fold objective. Firstly, to characterise and develop a typology of medical professionals according to their ICT use and expectations, and to identify the factors that foster or hinder telemedicine use in the healthcare organisation where they practise. And secondly, to determine the factors that have a greater capacity to explain the intention to use telemedicine.