Evolving role of telemedicine in maternal health care and challenges being faced

Mawrah Mughal, Madeeha Rashid, Prof. Kiren Khurshid, Prof. Rubina Sohail

 

Objective: 

• Determine the role of telemedicine in maternal health care. 
• Identify the benefits and challenges faced by doctors and patients.

 

Design: 

• Analytical cross sectional survey was carried out in Telemedicine Department of King Edward Medical University, for a period of 6 months (1-07-2022 to 31-12-2022).

Method:

• A sample size of 280 patients with a CI of 95% and 5% margin of error. 
• Non-probability convenience sampling technique used.
• Pre-tested questionnaire  used.
• Data analyzed by SPSS version 23 where quantitative data was expressed as number and frequencies.
• Mean and standard deviation used to measure the average and spread of participants responses was used.
  • P-value less than 0.05 used as a cutoff point for statistical significance.

 

Results:

• Age range using telemedicine 18- 40 years , highest number of participants were between 25-35 years.
• Literacy rate among users was 66%.
• Satisfied patients were 47%.
• Patients who found it challenging were 51%.

 

 

Conclusions:

Telemedicine bridges the exchange of medical information between doctor and patient. Though it offers a range of benefits still some of the challenges like compliance, liability concerns and technology glitches are there.