Perceptions and Attitudes of Doctorstowards Telemedicine: Case of Georgia

Digital transformation and the Fourth Industrial Revolutiontriggered substantial changes in many industries, worldwide. Healthcare industry is not an exclusion in this regard. Digitalization of healthcare and specifically digital health is becoming more important, year by year. Furthermore, COVID-19 pandemics dramatically increased importance of digital health. Telemedicine and specifically teleconsultations offer many benefits, such as, increased access to high quality healthcare services for individuals (especially for those living in rural areas), improved management of chronic conditions, cost efficiency, time saving for patients etc. However, despite all the benefits related with telemedicine,its adoption and uptake isrelatively slow, especially in developing countries. One of the major barriers hindering telemedicine adoption is skepticism and lack of confidence among doctors providing these services.Subsequently, presented research was focused on this aspect of telemedicine, in Georgia. The purpose of this study is to evaluate attitudes and perceptions of doctors towards telemedicine in Georgia. The main question of the conducted research was - how acceptable telemedicine is for the doctors providing this service? A combination of mixed-research methods has been applied. Initially qualitative research, focus group discussions were conducted withdoctors and specialists providing telemedicine consultations to patients. At the second stage, quantitative research- survey of doctors was performed. Analysis of results demonstrate, that skepticism and lack of confidence exists among doctors providing telemedicine services in Georgia. Moreover, there is a lack of qualification and specific skills for teleconsultations. Consequently, it is highly recommended to conduct trainings for doctors, to increase their awareness about areas of successful utilization of telemedicine, its benefits and specific characteristics. Furthermore, increased qualification of doctors will increase their confidence, which in turn will be reflected on patients and accordingly increase trust towards telemedicine