Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude, and Skills Regarding Telemedicine Among Syrian Healthcare Providers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study

Authors

  • Hidar Alibrahim Faculty of Medicine, Aleppo university, Aleppo , Syria
  • Sarya Swed
  • Haidara Bohsas
  • Sheikh Shoib
  • Shahm Alsakka
  • Nagham Jawish
  • Zain Alabdeen Othman
  • Bisher Sawaf

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/ijms.2022.1774

Keywords:

Telemedicine, Health intelligence, Healthcare Providers, COVID19, Syria

Abstract

Background: After the widespread of COVID-19 around the globe, it was imperative to establish preventative measures to restrict the virus's transmission and enable clinicians to remotely monitor patients' status and avoid direct contact with them. The purpose of this research was to present an overview of the awareness, knowledge, attitude, and abilities of Syrian physicians about telemedicine technology.

Methods: An online cross-sectional study was conducted from 1 April to 15 May, 2022 to assess Syrian doctors' awareness, knowledge, attitude, and skills towards telemedicine. The questionnaire was taken from published study, and the inclusion criteria consist the Syrian doctors who worked in hospitals during the COVID19 pandemic, mainly those who had direct contact with patients. Data were analyzed using descriptive and multivariate logistic regression analysis in IBM, SPSS V. 28.0.

Results: Among 385 responses, 52.72% of them were females, 83.9% of them were aged less than 30 years old, and 66% were working in the governmental sector. 66% of participants have moderate knowledge about using computers and the internet, 80% have heard about telemedicine. Despite that, 95.1% of participants have not attended any training workshop on telemedicine, and most of them have reported no availability of a telemedicine unit in their department. Only 31.7% participants have shown high awareness of telemedicine. Furthermore, no significant correlation was identified between the academic level with the age and telemedicine awareness, knowledge, attitude, or computer skills. Despite that, there was an obvious correlation between age and computer skills (P Value<0.05). There was a significant correlation between the medical specialty and awareness, and computer abilities, especially the anesthesiology (88.5±5.2), (84±8.7) respectively.

Conclusion: The study results demonstrate that most of the participating clinical doctors have a neutral view of telemedicine, even though they don't know much about it and don't have considerable experience with it. It is practical to educate and train academic staff, practicing physicians, residents and medical students within the clinical stages about telemedicine.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Downloads

Published

2022-12-31 — Updated on 2023-02-21

Versions

How to Cite

Alibrahim, H., Swed, S., Bohsas, H., Shoib, S., Alsakka, S., Jawish, N., Alabdeen Othman, Z., & Sawaf, B. (2023). Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude, and Skills Regarding Telemedicine Among Syrian Healthcare Providers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study. International Journal of Medical Students, 10, S207. https://doi.org/10.5195/ijms.2022.1774 (Original work published December 31, 2022)

Issue

Vol 10 (2022): Supplement 1

Section

Abstracts of the WCMSR

Categories

License

Copyright (c) 2022 Hidar Alibrahim, Sarya Swed, Haidara Bohsas, Sheikh Shoib, Shahm Alsakka, Nagham Jawish, Zain Alabdeen Othman, Bisher Sawaf

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site; with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
    2. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
    3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
    4. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
    5. The Author represents and warrants that:
      1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
      2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
      3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
      4. the Work has not previously been published;
      5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
      6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
    6. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from the Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Enforcement of copyright

The IJMS takes the protection of copyright very seriously.

If the IJMS discovers that you have used its copyright materials in contravention of the license above, the IJMS may bring legal proceedings against you seeking reparation and an injunction to stop you using those materials. You could also be ordered to pay legal costs.

If you become aware of any use of the IJMS' copyright materials that contravenes or may contravene the license above, please report this by email to contact@ijms.org

 

Infringing material

If you become aware of any material on the website that you believe infringes your or any other person's copyright, please report this by email to contact@ijms.org

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 > >>