Health Care Providers' Perception on Tele-Medicine/Tele-Health Usage in the Health Care Delivery System in South-West Nigeria

Abstract

Concern has been expressed for the past few years now, about the impact of globalization and telecommunication on the economic growth of any nation especially in the developing worlds with limited or no resources available for its implementation. However, tele-medicine and tele-health are newer emerging concepts in the healthcare delivery system in this part of the world. Hence, we aim to determine the perception of the professional health care providers at all levels of health care institutions towards tele health/ telemedicine in Lagos, South-west Nigeria. A prospective postal survey of a cross section of professional health care providers in Lagos, Nigeria was conducted using a modified highly structured questionnaires administered to health workers (doctors, nurses, medical laboratory scientists, health records) in the secondary and teaching hospital (LASUTH/ LASUCOM), and community heath workers, medical doctors and nurses at the local government areas. The result showed that 74% of the health workers agreed that telemedicine was beneficial in the health care delivery in Nigeria. While, some concern of its ethical consideration was expressed by 58.7% of health workers. However, 40.5% of respondents had never heard of telemedicine/tele-health as a means of improving health care delivery. Moreover, the main sources of information on this subject came from media (12%) and 13.5% got awareness through internet and professional partner. 74.3% of the health workers indicated their willingness to adopt Tele medicine in health care delivery if available and when giving appropriate training on its usage. In addition, twenty-two (22%) of respondents stated that Tele medicine should be adopted in our healthcare system for reasons of affordable and accessible health care, while 15% had agreed to its adoption for improving quality healthcare services offered to all patients in Nigeria. Moreover, telephone uses appear to be a major significant telemedicine tool available. Thus, it is highly desirable to give tele medicine a chance in the healthcare delivery system in order to breach for the present deficiency in the system.

Keywords: tele-medicine/health, health workers, perception, Lagos