Learning in organizations working with telemedicine

Abstract

To investigate learning in telemedicine, qualitative interviews were conducted with 30 people working with telepsychiatry, teledermatology, a telepathology frozen-section service and tele-otolaryngology. More than 80% of the respondents said that they had learnt something new by using telemedicine. Most frequently the participants improved their knowledge of the specialty in which they were involved, but this was not the only way in which they learnt. The learning did not necessarily change behaviour, as two-thirds of the respondents felt that the learning had not permitted them to perform tasks for which they had previously needed assistance (although this varied somewhat with the type of telemedical work that respondents were engaged in). Two-thirds of respondents thought that something more could be done in telemedical work to promote their own learning, which shows the clear potential for learning by telemedicine. Learning could be promoted further by extending the use of the technology to other applications. To start working with telemedicine, initial instruction seems to be sufficient—a more extensive training programme appears unnecessary. In future, as many applications of telemedicine are implemented, health-care organizations may become important arenas for learning and leaders will have to focus on learning. The results of the present study clearly showed that working with telemedicine produces learning.