Evaluation of telemedicine and health tourism awareness of healthcare professionals

Abstract

Although electronic infrastructures save time and service effort in delivering health services, we need more information about regional service providers' attitudes and deficiencies towards these technologies. Therefore, in our study, we wanted to evaluate the attitudes of healthcare professionals towards the use of electronic infrastructure in health tourism and their awareness of the use of telemedicine in general service delivery. For this purpose, a cross-sectional study was conducted among 108 healthcare professionals, and the data obtained from the survey was analyzed. According to our results, the preference for post-examination checks and the use of electronic infrastructures in health tourism are affected by gender and education. As healthcare professionals age, their knowledge of telemedicine increases, but their preference for using technology-based infrastructure or technological devices decreases. Our implications include eliminating deficiencies in health policies by effectively matching local needs and global expectations, especially health tourism and electronic health service provision.