A Study on Factors Determining Public Acceptance of Telemedicine in Malaysia’s Private Healthcare System

Telemedicine has presented the avenues for patients to remotely receive medical care from their physicians. Though the benefits of telemedicine in uplifting the quality of health care services have been well recognized, the issues of poor acceptance among users have been identified to be one of the constraints for the success of its deployment in healthcare system. Literatures have reported poor acceptance in countries where people approval towards this unconventional way of seeking medical care have been discouraging. This has hampered the great potential the ICT could have brought to healthcare in general. The objective of this study is to understand the acceptance of telemedicine among patients in seeking medical consultation, by establishing the determining factors that influence their uptakes of telemedicine. A survey will be conducted on private health care users to gauge their understanding of telemedicine services and their readiness to utilize the system. A framework to reflect the findings of this study will be developed with the aim of being referred to by the healthcare administration and policy makers in realizing digital health initiative in Malaysia.