| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this research project
is to establish the factors influencing use
of telemedicine
in Africa: a case of School of Medicine, University of Nairobi. The School of Medicine,
University of Nairobi has a large number of doctors who work as lecturers and mentors to the
undergraduate and postgraduate doctors. Considering that me
dical staff in this school are
practising doctors, this study is to confirm if the telemedicine facility available to them has
made considerable change in the mode of healthcare delivery. These changes included
their
ability to reach more patients, better
transmittance of patient reports and management of their
ever growing work load. This study was
guided by the technology acceptance model among
others to evaluate how much telemedicine has been accepted by the staff and if so why they
continue to use it. The study
look
ed at the factors that
influence the use of telemedicine at the
School of Medicine and determine what improvements can be made in using the
telemedicine. These
factors
included
infrastructure
,
technical skills, staff attitude, and
medical policies. As Africa has the largest disease burden in the world, this study is
significant as it seeks to establish how other methods of providing healthcare through the use
of telemedicine can be harnessed to improve patient healthcare within the African continent.
Descriptive research design
was adopted and
used on a
target population of 198 and a sample
size of 131 respondents.
Central tendency analysis of the data indicated that
age
of the
medical staff;
Number (N)= 79
, Mean (M) =
47.9, Median =
51–60
years
and standard
deviation (SD) =
0.788
.
The dependent variable was strongly related to the independent
variables as found out using chi-square
medical staff attitude
χ
2
(9) = 19.578, p
<
0.05 the
younger were not hesitant to use telemedicine irrespective of the outcome, those who use
telemedicine frequently were more positive with its availability as from the School of
Medicine
χ
2
(9)=34,551, p
<
0.05
.
The data
was
analysed
using Statistical Package for Social
Scientists (SPSS) version 17.
Conclusions arrived at after the analysis of the data were as
follows
most of the older medical staff
were
hesitant to use telemedicine, efforts put in by the
respondents in patient cares
hould be remunerated to improve the use of telemedicine and
telemedicine improved how the respondents worked within their departments.
Recommendations
were the medical Staff should be well introduced to
;
the level of
infrastructure at the School of medicine,
the
technicians available to guide them in using
telemedicine. General medical policies should be reviewed to introduce the remuneration of
doctors who give consults using
Telemedicine (
electronic media
)
as a way of encouraging the
use of the system, there should be a limitation to the kind of patients healthcare that can be
given via telemedicine as many of the older doctors were found to be more hesitant in using
telemedicine in patient healthcare, during the establishment of new telemedicine
infrastructure the medical staff should be consulted so as to allow for the adaptation and use
of the equipment, the School of medicine should create workshops and seminars where the
medical staff can be trained and introduced in
to other forms of telemedicine and
more
medical staff should be encouraged to use telemedicine as many thought it improved their
work | |
