Investigating the Factors Influencing Adoption of Telemedicine - Thesis Proposal Example

Present-day applications of information and communications technologies in healthcare have posted the domain to such a level that the physicians seem to be possessing supernatural powers. Telemedicine is one such tested, reliable, and dependable application of information and communications technologies in healthcare.In the recent past, researchers and practitioners have defined telemedicine as a branch of e-health that uses communications networks for delivery of healthcare services and medical education from one geographical location to another.

It is deployed to overcome issues like uneven distribution and shortage of infrastructural and human resources [Sood et al. 576]. Telemedicine not only promises to address certain healthcare issues, but it also aims to enhance the quality and speed of medical services. Telemedicine has shown to save time by avoiding unnecessary travel and also saves costs as far as the consumers of healthcare services are concerned. Telemedicine has been considered equally useful for developed as well as developing countries, telemedicine has been tried by using almost all the communications modalities ranging from the plain old telephone system to 3G mobile communications networks [Garawi, 91].

Although the technology of telemedicine holds immense potential to address some of the mentioned above issues, still this technology of social relevance has not gained its ground at the rate comparable to other information systems such as those centered on eBusiness/eCommerce, the more so when there is plenty of evidence justifying the need for telemedicine [Rissam, 9]. Unfortunately, healthcare has been stated to be one of the slowest sectors to adopt and implement information technology [England, 177].

It is a fact that very little is known about hospitals’ adoption of information technology (Burke, 350). Healthcare systems world over can be characterized as laggards in adopting telemedicine and Information Technology.