Adoption of Telemedicine - Challenges and Opportunities

U.S. health care system is plagued by rising cost and limited access. While the cost of care is increasing faster than the rate of inflation, people living in rural areas have very limited access to quality health care due to a shortage of physicians and facilities in these areas. Information and communication technologies in general and telemedicine in particular offer great promise to extend quality care to underserved rural communities at an affordable cost. However, adoption of telemedicine among the various stakeholders of the health care system has not been very encouraging. Based on an analysis of the extant research literature, this study identifies critical factors that impede the adoption of telemedicine, and offers suggestions to mitigate these challenges