Assessing knowledge, attitude, and readiness to use e-health among doctors in a tertiary health care unit in Bhubaneswar city, Odisha - A cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND: The term “”e-health”” refers to all technological applications in the delivery of a more affordable, high-speed, and widely accessible mode of health care. It is a definite solution to managing the public's health and well-being during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, and doctors from all fields of expertise are required to be at par with it in terms of knowledge, attitude, and readiness to use it to their advantage under the current circumstances. MATERIALS AND METHOD: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among the faculty, postgraduates, and interns of the medical and dental schools of a university, which used an expert-validated self-administered questionnaire assessing knowledge, attitude, and readiness to use e-health. RESULTS: Among the 400 participants, it was observed that the categories of age (P < 0.0001), gender (P = 0.018), designation (P = 0.031), and years of service (P < 0.0001) have significant differences across the groups. It was seen that the mean e-health knowledge (3.55 ± 0.52) and mean attitude (2.42 ± 0.59) to use e-health were more in dentists while participants from the medical field showed higher mean readiness (1.97 ± 0.58) to use e-health in daily practice. It was observed that male professionals had more mean knowledge (3.54 ± 0.60) than female professionals (3.43 ± 0.52) while female participants had more mean e-health readiness (1.96 ± 0.57). CONCLUSION: In a broad sense, the majority of participants responded positively to using e-health in their everyday practice. While medical doctors have a stronger outlook and preparedness, dentists showed more literacy and a supportive attitude to adopting e-health and telemedicine. Thus, it is necessary to step up comprehensive e-health workshops and training sessions for health care experts.