Telemedicine barriers and ways to overcome them.

Abstract

The ongoing discussion of telemedicine suggests that there are barriers to the widespread adoption of telemedicine technologies in clinical practice. The article is the first to classify the barriers of the introduction of telemedicine technologies into practice. There are 4 main barriers: technological, legal, economic and methodological. At the end of the description of each barrier, ways to overcome them are given. The technological barrier includes: the inconvenience of using existing tools, poor integration of telemedicine platforms with existing medical information systems (MIS), Poor standardization of information exchange protocols between sources (devices), information systems from different manufacturers, a small amount and low quality of digitized information about the state of human health and others. In the legal barrier, it is prohibited to make a diagnosis and prescribe treatment when providing medical care using telemedicine technologies, and also there are requirements for the workplace of a doctor providing TM-consultation. Financial barriers are represented by the difficulties of financing telemedicine - the lack of compulsory medical insurance tariffs, the erroneous opinion that telemedicine should reduce healthcare costs or does not require separate financing at all. The lack of methodological support for telemedicine - clinical studies, publications, methodological and clinical recommendations, training courses and programs on telemedicine for students, leads to a low commitment of doctors to use telemedicine in their work. The process of implementing telemedicine technologies is unavoidable. However, there is no doubt that telemedicine will eventually become a familiar and indispensable tool in the hands of doctors. Sooner or later, even without our active participation, these barriers will be overcome.