E-Health, another mechanism to recruit and retain healthcare professionals in remote areas: lessons learned from EQUI-ResHuS project in Mali

BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making

Research Article

Cheick-Oumar Bagayoko¹  Abdrahamane Anne¹  Antoine Geissbuhler²  Diakaridia Traoré³  Abdel Kader Traoré³  Marie-Pierre Gagnon⁴ 

[1] Centre d’Expertise et de Recherche en Télémédecine et E-Santé, CERTES, Bamako, Mali;Faculté de Médecine et d’Odonto-Stomatologie, FMOS, Bamako, Mali;Département de Radiologie et d’Informatique Médicale, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland;Faculté de Médecine et d’Odonto-Stomatologie, FMOS, Bamako, Mali;Faculté des Sciences Infirmières, Université Laval, Quebec, Canada;

关键词: Healthcare Professional;    Remote Area;    Continue Medical Education;    Stepwise Multiple Linear Regression Analysis;    Innovative Tool;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12911-014-0120-8

 received in 2014-01-30, accepted in 2014-12-09,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to evaluate the perceived influence of telehealth on recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals in remote areas in Mali.MethodsAfter 15 months of diagnosis imaging training and telehealth activities at four project sites in remote Mali, between May 2011 and August 2012, a 75-item questionnaire was administered to healthcare professionals to assess the various factors related to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), especially telehealth, and their influence on health personnel recruitment and retention. Questions assessing perceived impact of telehealth on recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals were rated on a five-point Likert scale. Dependent variables were perceived influence of ICT on recruitment and retention and independent variables were access to ICT, ICT training, ICT use, perceived benefits and drawbacks of telehealth, and perceived barriers to recruitment and retention. A multiple linear regression was performed to identify variables explaining the respondents’ perceptions regarding telehealth influence on recruitment and retention.ResultsData analysis showed that professionals in remote areas have very positive perceptions of telehealth in general. Many benefits of telehealth for recruitment and retention were highlighted, with perceived benefits of ICT (p = 0.0478), perceived effects of telehealth on recruitment (p = 0.0018), telehealth training (0.0338) and information on telehealth (0.0073) being the strongest motivators for recruitment, while the perceived effects of telehealth on retention (p = 0.0018) was the only factor significantly associated with retention.ConclusionsBased on our study results, telehealth could represent a mechanism for recruiting and retaining health professionals in remote areas and could reduce the isolation of these professionals through networking opportunities.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Bagayoko et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2014