Clinicians perceptions of a telemedicine system: a mixed method study of Makassar City, Indonesia
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(2020) 20:233
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Clinicians perceptions of a telemedicine system: a mixed method study of Makassar City, Indonesia Dea Indria1,2* , Mohannad Alajlani3 and Hamish S F Fraser4
Abstract Background: This case study in Makassar City, Indonesia aims to investigate the clinicians’ perceptions, including both satisfaction and barriers in using telemedicine in a large, established program which supported 3974 consultations in 2017. Methods: A mixed methodology was used in this research utilizing a questionnaire with 12 questions, and semistructured interviews. A purposeful sample of clinicians using the telemedicine system at the 39 primary care clinics in Makassar City were surveyed. A total of 100 clinicians participated in this study. All of them completed the questionnaires (76.9% response rate) and 15 of them were interviewed. Results: The result showed that 78% of the clinicians were satisfied with the telemedicine system. In free text responses 69% said that telemedicine allowed quicker diagnosis and treatment, 47% said poor internet connectivity was a significant obstacle in using the system, and 40% suggested improvement to the infrastructure including internet connection and electricity. Conclusion: Overall, the clinicians were satisfied with the system, with the main benefit of rendering the diagnosis faster and easier for patients. However, poor internet connectivity was indicated as the main barrier. Most of the clinicians suggested improving the infrastructure especially the internet network. Keywords: Perception, Primary health care, Telemedicine
Background Indonesia is an archipelago country which consists of more than 17,000 islands with more than 200 million people. It faces problem caused by an uneven distribution of health professionals, and healthcare disparities due to a vast territory and transport challenges [1, 2]. A study from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that 18,377 doctors worked in the Java and Bali islands, whereas 15,359 doctors worked in the rest of the * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Yorkshire Center for Health Informatics, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK 2 PO BOX INDRIADEA, Jakarta, JKB 11000, Indonesia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
country, an overall rate of only 13/100,000 population [2]. To access certain specialist physician, patients from remote areas need to travel long distances which can cause delays and high costs in accessing the health service. To overcome this problem, Indonesia began to develop telemedicine, since it enables health professionals to communicate over long distances using the internet for the exchange of health information [3, 4]. It is believed that telemedicine has the potential to overcome healthcare disparities and improve equitable access to healthcare by receipt of specialist’s second opinions from
© The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distr
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