Introducing Telemedicine Technology to Rural Physicians and Settings

Implementation strategies need to be tailored to the environmental conditions of practice sites that are carefully chosen for their potential to cultivate telemedicine. Successful sites can become exemplars to others. Establishing relationships with a practice site, however, begins with diplomatic negotiation that is sensitive to local conditions. A commitment must be made to nurture the relationship.

Limitations

The strength of our study lies in the initial investigation of rural health care providers’ perceptions of telemedicine, and we are not aware of any similar qualitative studies in the literature. The results of our study are limited, however, to the recent introduction of telemedicine technologies into rural settings. We presented perceptions of providers who were just beginning to adjust to new technologies. Future research is needed to determine the extent of these perceptions among rural health care providers in general and in particular whether some of the negative perceptions of telemedicine of the providers in our study will change over time.

Conclusions

Rural health care providers and administrators consider a range of factors, including economic ramifications, efficacy, social pressure, and apprehension, in deciding whether and how fast to adopt telemedicine technology. Since adopting this technology can be a major change, agencies trying to introduce it into rural areas should take all these factors into account in their approach to rural health care providers, staff, and communities.

Acknowledgments

Our study was funded by the National Library of Medicine, contract number: NO1-LM-6-3538.

Related resources

• Telemedicine Information Exchange (TIE) A National Library of Medicine-funded web page which offers comprehensive information on telemedicine and telehealth. https://tie.telemed.org
• Telemedicine And Health Care Informatics Legal Issues Web site A resource for providers, lawyers, professionals or anyone interested in learning more about health care law and, more specifically, the regulatory and transactional aspects of health care. https://www.netreach.net