Telemedicine Adoption Opportunities and Challenges in the Developing World

Abstract

Mapping opportunities and challenges of telemedicine adoption in an emerging economy has always been presumptive due to the scarcity of empirical evidence. Only recently the potential influencing factors of both issues in the rural context of emerging economies (using Bangladesh as a cases study) were investigated. Analysis of existing literature identified seven broad categories of challenges (e.g., deficient organisational commitment, inadequate technological infrastructure, insufficient resource allocations, deficient service quality, clinicians demotivation, patients' dissatisfaction, and patients' distrust) and six broad categories of opportunities (e.g., service usefulness, service assurance, secured patient privacy, adequacy of services, peer influence on use of services, and environmental conditions) concerning telemedicine adoption. Their significance is outlined. These findings contribute to the literature by distinguishing significant factors, which can positively favour or deter telemedicine implementation in developing countries and similar settings.