JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

This study addresses the adoption of technological innovations of the healthcare sector, and focuses specifically on telemedicine. Telemedicine, further advanced by the COVID-19 pandemic, represents an important tool for remote patient care, consultation, and treatment, improving the accessibility and efficiency of health care. Despite its potential, telemedicine adoption rates remain low, with perceived risks, uncertainties, and the lack of an overarching policy specifically tailored to health professionals' needs as major barriers to its widespread adoption.

Objective:

Our research aims to identify and integrate context-specific factors such as perceived risks, perceived benefits, and trust into a comprehensive framework that reflects the relevant adoption factors of telemedicine from a health care professionals’ perspective. Based on the Extended Valence Framework, this study seeks to develop a contextualized framework specifically adapted to telemedicine.

Methods:

A qualitative approach was used by conducting semi-structured interviews with health care professionals that offer video consultations. This approach, along with a qualitative content analysis based on deductive and inductive coding, aims to adapt the Extended Valence Framework to the context of telemedicine by decomposing its components. After reaching saturation, the final sample consisted of 14 health care professionals. Coding was performed by two independent coders and resulted in an intercoder reliability of 86.02%.

Results:

The results highlight the multi-layered considerations health care professionals have when adopting telemedicine. A differentiated understanding of perceived risks, such as performance and privacy concerns, as well as benefits, such as convenience and improved patient experience, emerged. A key finding was the essential role of different trust referents, which impacts various elements such as technology and treatment process. Transparency emerged as a critical antecedent to trust, underscoring the need for clarity in technological processes and professional interactions. In addition, the study emphasized the role of context-specific variables such as symptom characteristics and professional experience with the use of telemedicine.

Conclusions:

This study provides a multifaceted picture of the determinants that influence health care professionals in adopting telemedicine, revealing a spectrum of perceived risks and benefits and the central role of trust and transparency. Findings underpin the Extended Valence Framework with enhanced context-specific adaptability, providing a guide that enables policy makers and technology providers to take context-specific measures to specifically promote telemedicine adoption based on this study's results. Highlighting the relevant facets of the constructs under consideration and revealing the complexities and sensitivities of telemedicine adoption from the perspective of health care professionals, the enhanced framework highlights the most effective foundation to foster a supportive environment for broader adoption of telemedicine in the evolving health technology landscape.