Perspectives of the adoption of telemedicine in South Africa

Abstract

The research investigated the potentials and barriers of the adoption of telemedicine in Johannesburg, South Africa. Their research adopted correlation research design for the study. The research sampled 124 respondents who were health practitioners from eight different hospitals in Johannesburg, South Africa. The data collection instrument were questionnaires. The three hypotheses of the research were tested using correlation to draw inferences. In the end, the research found that the perceived usefulness of telemedicine has significant effects on the behavioral intention of health professionals and that both the external and internal variables have significant effects on perceived ease of use of telemedicine by health professionals. To this end, this research recommended that since telephonic consultation is the main telemedicine technology in South Africa, it is essential for the hospital's management to make adequate provision of all the facilities to sustain telemedicine so that it would make practitioners’ work easier and enable them to embrace the technology.