The Factors Related to Physicians’ Acceptance and Dissemination of Digital Health Services for Older Adults-Applying the Dissemination of Innovation Theory

초록

Introducing the Korean New Deal program, which includes dissemination of telemedicine, required the consideration of the physicians’ awareness and willingness to put the digital health services into practice. The current study aimed to understand the primary care physicians’ intention to accept digital healthcare services and suggest policy priorities for their dissemination. To fulfill the study objectives, we surveyed 259 primary physicians and analyzed their awareness of digital healthcare services and factors that influenced the dissemination of the new technology. Results showed that physicians have a higher priority in assistant technology for monitoring of patients’ medical data rather than health behavior data. Electronic health records systems had the highest priority among suggested digital healthcare services and telemedicine had the lowest priority. Also, increasing compatibility and reducing the complexity of digital healthcare technologies had a higher priority in terms of dissemination. Based on our result, we suggested taking into consideration physicians’ priority in applying digital healthcare services. It is necessary to strengthen cooperation with enterprises and stakeholders in order to meet physicians' needs. Furthermore, continuous training and education of physicians are necessary for increasing the personal innovativeness of digital health. © 2020, Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences. All rights reserved.

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