IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v11y2024i1d10.1057_s41599-024-03816-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Chinese physicians’ perceptions and willingness to use telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Xuelian Hai

    (Sichuan University
    Sichuan University)

  • Jia Zhang

    (Sichuan University
    Sichuan University)

  • Yumeng Zhang

    (Sichuan University
    Sichuan University)

  • Jay Pan

    (Sichuan University
    Sichuan University)

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic catalysed the rapid uptake of telemedicine as a vital tool for physicians to provide healthcare services to patients. However, despite the potential advantages of telemedicine, there remains a paucity of research examining physicians’ attitudes and utilisation patterns towards this mode of healthcare delivery. Therefore, this study investigated the factors impacting physicians’ telemedicine utilisation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and protection motivation theory, a cross-sectional survey was conducted between June 3rd and October 26th, 2022. A structural equation model was subsequently developed to validate the response-based research model. Of the 296 physicians surveyed, 134 reported an increase in the frequency of telemedicine use following the COVID-19 pandemic, and 88.9% of respondents supported the implementation of telemedicine services at their hospitals. The analysis revealed that perceived vulnerability, perceived severity, performance expectations, effort expectations, and facilitating conditions were significant factors influencing physicians’ willingness to adopt telemedicine. Importantly, the results suggest that strategies to enhance the usefulness and convenience of telemedicine systems are imperative for fostering adoption. Such efforts will be instrumental in expediting the promotion and implementation of internet-based healthcare services to enhance the accessibility of healthcare services in China.

Suggested Citation

  • Xuelian Hai & Jia Zhang & Yumeng Zhang & Jay Pan, 2024. "Chinese physicians’ perceptions and willingness to use telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-024-03816-6
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-024-03816-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-024-03816-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-024-03816-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grover, Purva & Kar, Arpan Kumar & Davies, Gareth, 2018. "“Technology enabled Health” – Insights from twitter analytics with a socio-technical perspective," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 85-97.
    2. Hossain, Akram & Quaresma, Rui & Rahman, Habibur, 2019. "Investigating factors influencing the physicians’ adoption of electronic health record (EHR) in healthcare system of Bangladesh: An empirical study," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 76-87.
    3. Ahmad, Syed Zamberi & Khalid, Khalizani, 2017. "The adoption of M-government services from the user’s perspectives: Empirical evidence from the United Arab Emirates," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 367-379.
    4. Wenshuang Wei & Miao Zhang & Dan Zuo & Qinmei Li & Min Zhang & Xinguang Chen & Bin Yu & Qing Liu, 2022. "Screening Intention Prediction of Colorectal Cancer among Urban Chinese Based on the Protection Motivation Theory," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-13, April.
    5. Singh, Nidhi & Misra, Richa & Singh, Sonali & Rana, Nripendra P. & Khorana, Sangeeta, 2022. "Assessing the factors that influence the adoption of healthcare wearables by the older population using an extended PMT model," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    6. Eui Dong Kim & Kevin K.Y. Kuan & Milan Rasikbhai Vaghasiya & Jonathan Penm & Naren Gunja & Redouane El Amrani & Simon K. Poon, 2023. "Passive resistance to health information technology implementation: the case of electronic medication management system," Behaviour and Information Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(13), pages 2308-2329, October.
    7. Xiu-Fu Tian & Run-Ze Wu, 2022. "Determinants of the Mobile Health Continuance Intention of Elders with Chronic Diseases: An Integrated Framework of ECM-ISC and UTAUT," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-19, August.
    8. Gaoyong Li & Xin Zhang & Ge Zhang, 2022. "To Use or Not to Use: It Is a Question—An Empirical Study on the Adoption of Mobile Finance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-23, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Queiroz, Maciel M. & Fosso Wamba, Samuel, 2019. "Blockchain adoption challenges in supply chain: An empirical investigation of the main drivers in India and the USA," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 70-82.
    2. Su-Chen(Cecilia) Lin & Mei-Chen Chuang & Chen-Yuan Huang & Chia-En Liu, 2023. "Nursing Staff’s Behavior Intention to Use Mobile Technology: An Exploratory Study Employing the UTAUT 2 Model," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, November.
    3. Alekh Gour & Shikha Aggarwal & Subodha Kumar, 2022. "Lending ears to unheard voices: An empirical analysis of user‐generated content on social media," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(6), pages 2457-2476, June.
    4. Sharma, Sujeet Kumar & Sharma, Manisha, 2019. "Examining the role of trust and quality dimensions in the actual usage of mobile banking services: An empirical investigation," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 65-75.
    5. Fang Fang & Yin Zhou & Shi Ying & Zhijuan Li, 2023. "A Study of the Ping An Health App Based on User Reviews with Sentiment Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-14, January.
    6. Prabhsimran Singh & Surleen Kaur & Abdullah M. Baabdullah & Yogesh K. Dwivedi & Sandeep Sharma & Ravinder Singh Sawhney & Ronnie Das, 2023. "Is #SDG13 Trending Online? Insights from Climate Change Discussions on Twitter," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 199-219, February.
    7. Roppelt, Julia Stefanie & Kanbach, Dominik K. & Kraus, Sascha, 2024. "Artificial intelligence in healthcare institutions: A systematic literature review on influencing factors," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    8. Yadav, Amit Kumar & Shweta, & Kumar, Dinesh, 2023. "Blockchain technology and vaccine supply chain: Exploration and analysis of the adoption barriers in the Indian context," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    9. Mehreen Azam & Salman Bin Naeem & Maged N. Kamel Boulos & Anthony Faiola, 2023. "Modelling the Predictors of Mobile Health (mHealth) Adoption among Healthcare Professionals in Low-Resource Environments," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(23), pages 1-17, November.
    10. Zatul Fahany Harun & Nur Shahrulliza Muhammad & Zuhal Hussein & Amily Fikri & Azreen Joanna Abdul, 2024. "Factors influencing patients’ intention to use the Health Clinic Online Appointment System app," Information Management and Business Review, AMH International, vol. 16(2), pages 53-62.
    11. Geissinger, Andrea & Laurell, Christofer & Öberg, Christina & Sandström, Christian, 2023. "Social media analytics for innovation management research: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    12. Amarjit Kaur & Prerna Ahuja & Jinesh Jain & Simarjeet Singh & Aashish Garg, 2023. "Is Youth Ready for the Looming Technology Frontier in Healthcare? Examining Intentions and Adoption of Mobile Health (mHealth)," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 11(1), pages 63-80, January.
    13. Sestino, Andrea & D'Angelo, Alfredo, 2024. "Elderly patients' reactions to gamification-based digital therapeutics (DTx): The relevance of socialization tendency seeking," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    14. Yi Sun & Shihui Li & Rui Wang, 2023. "Fintech: from budding to explosion - an overview of the current state of research," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 715-755, April.
    15. Yubo Peng & LingWu Wang & Shuiqing Yang, 2021. "Explaining mobile government social media continuance from the valence perspective: A SEM-NN approach," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(2), pages 1-13, February.
    16. Safdar, Sarah & Ren, Minglun & Chudhery, Muhammad Adnan Zahid & Huo, Jiazhen & Rehman, Hakeem-Ur & Rafique, Raza, 2022. "Using cloud-based virtual learning environments to mitigate increasing disparity in urban-rural academic competence," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    17. Hossain, Akram & Quaresma, Rui & Rahman, Habibur, 2019. "Investigating factors influencing the physicians’ adoption of electronic health record (EHR) in healthcare system of Bangladesh: An empirical study," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 76-87.
    18. Jiaxin Chen & Ting Li & Hua You & Jingyu Wang & Xueqing Peng & Baoyi Chen, 2023. "Behavioral Interpretation of Willingness to Use Wearable Health Devices in Community Residents: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-11, February.
    19. Brantnell, Anders & Wagrell, Sofia, 2024. "Implementation of medical technology in management and engineering studies: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    20. Zijun Mao & Qi Zou & Tingting Bu & Ying Dong & Rongxiao Yan, 2023. "Understanding the Role of Service Quality of Government APPs in Continuance Intention: An Expectation–Confirmation Perspective," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-024-03816-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.