Reasons for the Non-Adoption of Telemedicine in Italy: An Empirical Study

The fourth and final chapter of this volume addresses the research that has emerged from the growing interest in Telemedicine in Europe and Italy. Despite the abundance of legislation that has increased accessibility to Telemedicine, especially in pharmacies, there continues to be resistance from the Italian territories, making Telemedicine in Italy an isolated and sporadic phenomenon. From the discussions in previous chapters, it can be seen that the diffusion of technological innovations in health systems is a crucial factor in the adoption of such innovations, which must be done consciously by community-based organisations. Hence, it is of interest to investigate the reasons for Italian pharmacists and owners or managers of community-based pharmacies choosing not to adopt Telemedicine. As will be seen in the course of this chapter, respondents were neither uniform nor compact. Indeed, the survey based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology shows that there are profound differences among groups of respondents and a range of variables that come into play in the choice of whether or not to adopt Telemedicine. For example, the assumption that younger people would be more inclined to adopt technological innovations was not supported by the data, which showed the exact opposite. Thus, this chapter will assist both public and private decision-makers to make appropriate decisions so that Telemedicine is no longer, in Italian communities at least, an episodic and sporadic phenomenon.