Evaluations of the Pioneer Telemedicine Application System in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Ming-Jung Wu, 吳明容
• Other Authors: Hsiu-Fen Tan
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/92794292649190824910

碩士 === 長榮大學 === 醫務管理學系碩士班 === 92 === Objectives. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of telemedicine application system in Taiwan over the past nine years. Such evaluation could provide policy makers with references in tuning or reforming the relevant policy in the future. There are three aims in this study: 1. Evaluating the effectiveness of the pioneer telemedicine application plan ran by five medical centers in Taiwan; 2. Discussing the possibility of the cooperation between telemedicine and Integrated Delivery System (IDS) in rural areas; 3. Arguing the suitable contents and patterns of the telemedicine in Taiwan. Design. The study consisted of two parts: opinion survey and cost analysis. In the first part, opinions were gathered from medical staff, patients, and local residence by questionnaires. In the second part, data from the Department of Health and the final running reports from five medical centers were used to analyze the potential cost of different delivery models. Results. The results showed that most residents were not aware of the telemedicine system. Nevertheless, they have positive attitude toward the application of telemedicine. However, thirty percent of population preferred referral services than using telemedicine services. 11% of population felt that the telemedicine was different from traditional medical services. Fifteen percent of population felt that the telemedicine has not been useful in their local areas. Only half of the patients felt that they can not accept treatments without physical contacts. Moreover, some doctors felt that they were not able to provide medical services of similar quality by using telemedicine and felt insecure in transferring medical data. From 1987 to 1993, the Department of Health has spent over 25.8 million NT dollars per year in telemedicine system, with a total of 180 million NT dollars. The connected townships increased from 3 to 24, with an average of 1.97 million NT dollars per town. During these seven years, telemedicine has provided services to 8,407 patients in five medical centers, with an average of 1,201 patient-units per year. The average number of patients seen in each connected point greatly decreased from 217 patients in 1987 to 45 patients in 1993, a 80% decrease. Obviously, the usage of telemedicine did not increase as the increase in connected townships. Our analysis showed that the average cost of telemedicine could be reduced if the usage increased. In other words, when the telemedicine practice becomes more popular in remote area, the investment will become more efficient. Suggestions. Our suggestions are as the followings: (1) efficient integration among different levels of healthcare providers; (2) administration reform for current telemedicine operation system; (3) re-establishing the goals of telemedicine system and carefully evaluating its performance; (4) provision of education or training program through telemedicine system; (5) provision of healthcare education to the public; (6) integration among primary healthcare providers in rural areas to derive a more comprehensive healthcare system.