Determining the Awareness and Attitude of Employees in Deputy of Health of Isfahan University of Medical Science toward Telemedicine and its Advantages

INTRODUCTION The useful capabilities of information and communication technologies for improving health services are becoming widely known. However many of the managers and policymakers of health systems are not yet familiar with these technologies, their dimensions and applications and the advantages of these new technologies for creating added value in health systems. Therefore the goal of this study is to determine the awareness and attitude of employees working for Deputy of Health of Isfahan University of Medical Science regarding telemedicine and its advantages. METHOD This study uses a descriptive - analytical method with sectional information gathering. The investigated population consisted of all managers and experts employed by Deputy of health of Isfahan University of Medical Science. The sample size was determined based on inclusion criteria to be 60 people. The data gathering tool was a questionnaire designed by the researcher in order to determine the awareness and attitude of the subjects. In order to determine the validity and reliability of the questionnaire content validity method and Cronbach's alpha were used. The information was analyzed using descriptive (frequency, average) and analytical (Spearman correlation test and independent t-test) statistics with the help of SPSS19 software. FINDINGS Research findings showed that the awareness and attitude of managers and experts toward telemedicine was mediocre. Spearman correlation test showed that there is a correlation between the educational degree and awareness of the subject, however the correlation coefficient was lower than 0.5 which shows a weak correlation (0.451). On the other hand, the calculated P-value of 0.008 showed that there is a meaningful relation between the education and awareness of managers regarding telemedicine. CONCLUSION Due to importance of awareness and attitude in acceptance of new technologies, one can say that currently there is not enough readiness for planning and implementation of telemedicine projects in the Deputy of health. Therefore changes in the organizational culture, organizational structures and infrastructure, current plans and educating the employees in order to improve their awareness and attitude is of great importance.