African Disaster Studies (Interdisciplinary - Social/Env/Health/Policy) | 02 August 2000
Telemedicine in Rural Zambia: Patient Acceptance and Clinical Outcomes Evaluation
K, a, b, i, r, u, M, u, s, o, n, d, a, ,, C, h, i, l, u, f, y, a, M, u, k, o, s, a, ,, M, w, a, l, e, M, b, u, l, i
Abstract
Telemedicine services have been increasingly implemented in rural areas of Zambia to address healthcare disparities. A mixed-methods approach was employed, including surveys for patient acceptability feedback and retrospective chart reviews for clinical outcome assessment. Patient acceptability rates were found to be high at 85%, with significant improvements noted in treatment adherence and timely access to specialist consultations. Telemedicine services have demonstrated promising benefits in improving healthcare delivery in rural Zambia, particularly in terms of patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes. Further expansion of telemedicine programmes should be considered based on the positive findings from this study. Treatment effect was estimated with $\text{logit}(p<em>i)=\beta</em>0+\beta^\top X_i$, and uncertainty reported using confidence-interval based inference.