Conceptual framework for telehealth adoption in Indian healthcare

Abstract

<p>India is a developing country with a large landmass and a huge socio-culturally, economically and, ethnically diverse population. The healthcare system for such a diverse and complex country could entail challenges anddifficulties in execution and outreach. Here, the emerging area of Telehealth could afford a place for itself in providing healthcare and health education to a large section of people residing in areas where there is acute shortage of healthcare professionals. Almost, seventy per cent of the population in India are rural. The infrastructure in India, similar to other developing countries, is erratic and differs throughout the country. Similarly, the ICT infrastructure is developed in the urban areas whereas there are insufficient ICT facilities in the rural areas. As telehealth depends on the utilisation of ICT infrastructure it is essential to conduct a study to find out the determinants of ICT adoption in the Indian telehealth environment. Moreover, as evident from relevant literature, telehealth is in a nascent stage in India, with most of the projects currently in a pilot study level. As such, it would be practical to conduct the study from an organisational point of view because the organisational adoption of ICT will eventually foster the implementation of telehealth in the domain of Indian healthcare. The study focuses on developing a conceptual framework of ICT adoption in the Indian telehealth environment, as limited research has been conducted in this area. The study highlighted the drivers and barriers of telehealth around the world, reviewed the relevant models of ICT adoption and generated themes to develop the conceptual framework. Empirical testing of the conceptual framework may have the potential to establish and confirm the determinants of ICT adoption in the Indian telehealth environment. The conceptual framework may be utilised for governmental and non-governmental policy level decision making.</p>