Telehealth in Sri Lanka: stakeholder perspectives on knowledge, practices, and future requirements

Background and Objective: The pandemic caused many to re-think Telehealth. Understanding the key features underlying the required cultural shift is necessary to maintain sustainability of Telehealth programmes.  The objective of the study was to understand the underlying user needs which are necessary to maintain sustainability of Telehealth programmes as well as enhancing healthcare via Telehealth services.
Methods: The characteristics of three key stakeholder groups were studied using a web-based survey questionnaire, which included 224 doctors, nine telehealth programs and 235 registered telehealth consumers.
Results: A majority of the doctors (91.1%, n=204) used a telephone to communicate with patients while a few (14.7%, n=33) used a Telehealth vendor platform.  A minority (4.5%, n=10) thought Telehealth is not a need in Sri Lanka and from those who thought otherwise, 68.7% (n=147) were interested in using Telehealth for future consultations. The most popular reason given for this interest was physician convenience (136, 92.5%).  Meanwhile, eight of the nine Telehealth programmes surveyed, anticipated better coordination of healthcare and improvement of patient convenience. Three had electronic medical record systems, Six offered primary healthcare and health promotion services while only one issued internet-based prescriptions.  Of the registered consumers, a majority (78.7%, n=185) had received Telehealth care and 70.8% (n=131) agreed that the availability of an internet-based prescription option is important. Further, 56.2% (n=104) stated that use of Telehealth enabled them to reduce healthcare expenditures. Overall satisfaction about their experience was average (61.1%, n=114) and 69.2% (n=128) were willing to reuse Telehealth.
Conclusions/recommendations: Addressing consumer needs, expanding access to specialized clinical care, updating medical legislation and incorporating telehealth education into medical curricula could enhance the use of telehealth.