Teleconsultation: Rejected and Emerging Uses

Summary

Objective: The aim of this paper is to analyse telemedicine as a new means to improve health care accessibility.

Method: A case study design was used to understand how medical specialists perceived, made sense of, and appropriated a teleconsultation system.

Results and Conclusions: The technology was used neither in the manner nor to the extent anticipated by its designers. A fundamental modification to the traditional medical consultation process has emerged. Unable to be used as a substitute to the traditional medical consultation process, the teleconsultation system imposes a greater burden on the shoulders of participating physicians who, after a few trials, returned to their traditional mode of practice.

Keywords

Telemedicine - teleconsultation - users’ mediated use - information and communication technology (ICT)

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