Abstract
Telemedicine requires a new type of worker: the health care teleworker. Nevertheless, physicians remain wary of adopting telemedicine. This work examines the sources of the resistance to incorporating telemedicine. We adopt a focus centering on the difficulties that human factors have in accepting the practice of telemedicine. Employees’ resistance to change comes mainly from the inertia that perpetuates traditional routines and methods of working. The success of telemedicine projects will be determined by these human factors as well as by an adequate use of information technology and an appropriate organizational management. This work also offers some practical implications in human resource management for managers of telemedicine projects to consider.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Telemedicine: The use of information and communications technologies to exchange information between practitioners, or to deliver medical services to a patient remotely.
Virtual Health Care Teams: Teams made up of health care professionals that share information about patients electronically in order to improve their knowledge and decision-making.
Over-the-Counter (OTC) Medicine: A medicine that can be bought without a doctor’s prescription, such as some analgesics.
Telepathology: The digital transmission between health care professionals of high-resolution images of, for example, microscope slides, photographs of injuries or smears, and so forth.
Teleendoscopy: The digital transmission between health care professionals of the results of endoscopic examinations.
Telecardiology: The digital transmission between health care professionals of information relating to electrocardiograms, echocardiograms, angioplasty, and cardiac pacemaker monitoring.
Teleradiology: The digital transmission between health care professionals of electronic radiology images such as X-rays, computerized axial tomography scans, or magnetic resonance images.
Telemonitoring: The remote monitoring of patients’ state of health. It is fundamentally used to control and treat chronic patients.
E-Health: The provision of any health care service that is supported by electronic processes and communications.
Telesurgery: Remote surgery using robotics and audio/video devices.
Teledermatology: The digital transmission between health care professionals of images of the skin using a dermascope.