PERSPECTIVES OF TELEMEDICINE: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY ON ASSESSING THE LEVEL OF AWARENESS, KNOWLEDGE AND PERCEPTION OF TELEMEDICINE SERVICES IN EBONYI STATE

Telemedicine is the act of making available medical care remotely via the utilization of information technology and telecommunications such as remote monitoring, electronic transmission of medical records and video consultations. This term Telemedicine is mostly vital technology that makes it very easy for people to access preventive treatment and equally help their chronic health conditions. Especially for those who are having financial or regional causes that prevent them from receiving quality treatment. Therefore, this work presents the assessment of the level of awareness, knowledge and equally the perception of telemedicine services in Ebonyi State. The researcher carried out a cross-sectional study among the general public, physicians and some patients in different clinics or medical centres in Ebonyi State. A structured, self- administered online and hardcopy questionnaires were distributed. 342 responses were retrieved amongst diverse distribution of genders, occupations, ages, and frequencies of using technology daily, accessibility of electricity and stable internet connection. The SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 23 was utilized for the analysis of the data. Validation of the questionnaire was performed through calculation of Cronbach’s alpha test for the consistency of the following item statements (i) Awareness and knowledge of telemedicine (0.738), (ii) Experience and use (0.799) (iii) Perceptions and beliefs (0.828), Kaiser- Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test for sampling adequacy (0.878) and Bartlett’s test of sphericity (<0.001). The frequencies of all the parameters in this study were expressed and means±standard deviation (SD).  Independent sample t-test was equally used by the researcher to compare between means of different categories. The analysis revealed that 77.2% respondents revealed that they have not used Telemedicine services. This therefore entails that greater number of people living in Ebonyi State, do not use telemedicine service for remote healthcare delivery which implies that they are not enjoying the benefits associated with telemedicine services such as timely intervention, enhanced patient monitoring, no inconveniences due to long wait times, no missed appointments etc. I therefore recommend that training, meetings, and orientation programs should be organized for the healthcare personnel, general population, and information technologists to equip the people of Ebonyians with the knowledge of telemedicine which will enhance their method of receiving medical attention. Keywords: Telemedicine, Store-and-forward, remote monitoring, Telecommunication, Telehealth