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Telemedicine Reseacrh

Telemedicine is an alternative way of delivering healthcare services to remote or underserved areas. Even though its benefits have been accepted by the majority of researchers, its adoption and especially its effectiveness is under continuous question. There have been a considerable amount of evaluation studies indicating the high failure rate of several applications around the world.

In this project the factors that lead to successful implementation of telemedicine projects will be evaluated. Even in less developed countries telemedicine is introduced as a solution for the problems that healthcare delivery faces. Unfortunately the enthusiasm of some health professionals who tried to implement a project such as this led to a failure regardless the fact that the cost of technology is being reduced the last years. On the other hand, some projects succeeded even with fewer resources. Evidence show that there are many factors that affect the outcome of an implementation. The factors which should be taken into account in the planning and implementation phase of a typical project will be investigated in this research.

In order to carry out this research, quantitative and qualitative methods have been adopted. A hypothesis is made on most significant factors according to the literature such as user participation, technology selection and government support. Questionnaires were sent to professionals who have been involved in the implementation of telemedicine projects and they were asked to evaluate these factors. The results revealed the significance of each factor that could lead towards a successful implementation of telemedicine applications. Moreover, based on the results, various recommendations were made in order to guide future implementations.