Adoption of routine telemedicine in Norwegian hospitals: progress over 5 years

Abstract Background Although Norway is well known for its early use of telemedicine to provide services for people in rural and remote areas in the Arctic, little is known about the pace of telemedicine adoption in Norway. The aim of the present study was to explore the statewide implementation of t...

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Main Authors: Zanaboni, Paolo, Wootton, Richard
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: BioMed Central Ltd. 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/16/496
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spelling ftbiomed:oai:biomedcentral.com:s12913-016-1743-5 2023-05-15T15:12:58+02:00 Adoption of routine telemedicine in Norwegian hospitals: progress over 5 years Zanaboni, Paolo Wootton, Richard 2016-09-20 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/16/496 en eng BioMed Central Ltd. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/16/496 Copyright 2016 The Author(s). Telemedicine Telehealth Adoption Implementation Barriers Research article 2016 ftbiomed 2016-10-09T00:01:34Z Abstract Background Although Norway is well known for its early use of telemedicine to provide services for people in rural and remote areas in the Arctic, little is known about the pace of telemedicine adoption in Norway. The aim of the present study was to explore the statewide implementation of telemedicine in Norwegian hospitals over time, and analyse its adoption and level of use. Methods Data on outpatient visits and telemedicine consultations delivered by Norwegian hospitals from 2009 to 2013 were collected from the national health registry. Data were stratified by health region, hospital, year, and clinical specialty. Results All four health regions used telemedicine, i.e. there was 100 % adoption at the regional level. The use of routine telemedicine differed between health regions, and telemedicine appeared to be used mostly in the regions of lower centrality and population density, such as Northern Norway. Only Central Norway seemed to be atypical. Twenty-one out of 28 hospitals reported using telemedicine, i.e. there was 75 % adoption at the hospital level. Neurosurgery and rehabilitation were the clinical specialties where telemedicine was used most frequently. Despite the growing trend and the high adoption, the relative use of telemedicine compared to that of outpatient visits was low. Conclusions Adoption of telemedicine is Norway was high, with all the health regions and most of the hospitals reporting using telemedicine. The use of telemedicine appeared to increase over the 5-year study period. However, the proportion of telemedicine consultations relative to the number of outpatient visits was low. The use of telemedicine in Norway was low in comparison with that reported in large-scale telemedicine networks in other countries. To facilitate future comparisons, data on adoption and utilisation over time should be reported routinely by statewide or network-based telemedicine services. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Northern Norway BioMed Central Arctic Norway
institution Open Polar
collection BioMed Central
op_collection_id ftbiomed
language English
topic Telemedicine
Telehealth
Adoption
Implementation
Barriers
spellingShingle Telemedicine
Telehealth
Adoption
Implementation
Barriers
Zanaboni, Paolo
Wootton, Richard
Adoption of routine telemedicine in Norwegian hospitals: progress over 5 years
topic_facet Telemedicine
Telehealth
Adoption
Implementation
Barriers
description Abstract Background Although Norway is well known for its early use of telemedicine to provide services for people in rural and remote areas in the Arctic, little is known about the pace of telemedicine adoption in Norway. The aim of the present study was to explore the statewide implementation of telemedicine in Norwegian hospitals over time, and analyse its adoption and level of use. Methods Data on outpatient visits and telemedicine consultations delivered by Norwegian hospitals from 2009 to 2013 were collected from the national health registry. Data were stratified by health region, hospital, year, and clinical specialty. Results All four health regions used telemedicine, i.e. there was 100 % adoption at the regional level. The use of routine telemedicine differed between health regions, and telemedicine appeared to be used mostly in the regions of lower centrality and population density, such as Northern Norway. Only Central Norway seemed to be atypical. Twenty-one out of 28 hospitals reported using telemedicine, i.e. there was 75 % adoption at the hospital level. Neurosurgery and rehabilitation were the clinical specialties where telemedicine was used most frequently. Despite the growing trend and the high adoption, the relative use of telemedicine compared to that of outpatient visits was low. Conclusions Adoption of telemedicine is Norway was high, with all the health regions and most of the hospitals reporting using telemedicine. The use of telemedicine appeared to increase over the 5-year study period. However, the proportion of telemedicine consultations relative to the number of outpatient visits was low. The use of telemedicine in Norway was low in comparison with that reported in large-scale telemedicine networks in other countries. To facilitate future comparisons, data on adoption and utilisation over time should be reported routinely by statewide or network-based telemedicine services.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Zanaboni, Paolo
Wootton, Richard
author_facet Zanaboni, Paolo
Wootton, Richard
author_sort Zanaboni, Paolo
title Adoption of routine telemedicine in Norwegian hospitals: progress over 5 years
title_short Adoption of routine telemedicine in Norwegian hospitals: progress over 5 years
title_full Adoption of routine telemedicine in Norwegian hospitals: progress over 5 years
title_fullStr Adoption of routine telemedicine in Norwegian hospitals: progress over 5 years
title_full_unstemmed Adoption of routine telemedicine in Norwegian hospitals: progress over 5 years
title_sort adoption of routine telemedicine in norwegian hospitals: progress over 5 years
publisher BioMed Central Ltd.
publishDate 2016
url http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/16/496
geographic Arctic
Norway
geographic_facet Arctic
Norway
genre Arctic
Northern Norway
genre_facet Arctic
Northern Norway
op_relation http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/16/496
op_rights Copyright 2016 The Author(s).
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