Abstract
Background: Telehealth is delivering health care services remote from
health-care facilities using telecommunications. Egypt is aiming for
Universal Health Coverage; this increases the demand of telehealth in
routine health services. Objective: to measure the awareness of
telehealth health care workers of primary health care units and to
evaluate the effect of an orientation program on primary health care
workers’ awareness and acceptance of application of telehealth.
Methodology: This was an intervention study among health care workers. A
self-administrated valid questionnaire for health care workers was
designed, the questionnaire consists of different domains of knowledge
in addition to advantages, disadvantages, security and necessity
perceptions. Each domain consists of Likert scale questions of 5 points.
The questions were scored as the worst answer (1) and the best (5). A
total of 109 questionnaires were filled by participants who spent at
least 6 months in primary health care units. Then the health care
workers were attended an orientation program and the questionnaire was
re-filled once more. A total of 104 was recollected. Ethical issues were
considered. Results: 50.5% of health care workers were aware of
telehealth; 66.7% of health care workers with master’s degree were
aware of telehealth in comparison to 31.8% among those with a diploma,
64.3% of physicians were aware of telehealth while 9.6% of nurses were
aware. The score of knowledge and attitude increased from 130±23.538 to
156.49±18.456 after the educational program. Conclusion: Half of health
care workers were aware of telehealth; the orientation improved the
Healthcare Workers’ knowledge and attitude.