Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Feb 17, 2021
Date Accepted: May 6, 2021
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Application of telemedicine services based on a regional telemedicine platform in China from 2014 to 2020: Longitudinal Trend Analysis
ABSTRACT
Background:
Telemedicine, a typical application combining information technology and medical services, breaks the operational model of traditional medical services and brings new opportunities and challenges to the medical industry. China promotes telemedicine with great efforts, and its practices in the deployment of telemedicine platforms and delivery of services have become important references for the research and development of telemedicine globally.
Objective:
Our work described in this paper focuses on a regional telemedicine platform that was built in 2014. We analyzed the design scheme of the platform and remote consultations that were conducted via the telemedicine system to understand the deployment and service delivery processes of a typical telemedicine system in China.
Methods:
We collected information on remote consultations conducted from 2015 to 2020 via the regional telemedicine platform that employs a centralized architectural system model. We employed graphs and statistical methods to describe the changing trends of service volume of remote consultation, geographical and demographical distribution of patients, waiting time and duration of consultations. The factors that affect consultation duration and patient referral were analyzed by multiple linear regression models and binary logistic regression models, respectively. The attitudes towards telemedicine of 225 medical practitioners and 225 patients were collected using the snowball sampling method.
Results:
The development of telemedicine in China shows a growing trend, and medical institutions located in less developed regions and senior citizens are the primary service objects. Cases of remote consultations are mainly with chronic diseases. At present, the importance and necessity of telemedicine are well recognized by both patients and medical practitioners. However, the waiting time needs to be further reduced to improve the efficiency of remote medical services.
Conclusions:
The development of telemedicine in China is showing a growing trend, and medical institutions located in less developed regions and senior citizens are the primary service objects. Cases of remote consultations are mainly with chronic diseases. At present, the importance and necessity of telemedicine are well recognized by both patients and medical practitioners. However, the waiting time needs to be further reduced to improve the efficiency of remote medical services. Clinical Trial: The research does not involve experiments.
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