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Tripartite Data Analysis for Optimizing Telemedicine Operations: Evidence from Guizhou Province in China

Telemedicine is an innovative approach that helps alleviate the health disparity in developing countries and improve health service accessibility, affordability, and quality. Few studies have focused on the social and organizational issues involved in telemedicine, despite in-depth studies of and si...

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Autores principales: Yu, Jinna, Zhang, Tingting, Liu, Zhen, Hatab, Assem Abu, Lan, Jing
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6981610/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31935950
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010375
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author Yu, Jinna
Zhang, Tingting
Liu, Zhen
Hatab, Assem Abu
Lan, Jing
author_facet Yu, Jinna
Zhang, Tingting
Liu, Zhen
Hatab, Assem Abu
Lan, Jing
author_sort Yu, Jinna
collection PubMed
description Telemedicine is an innovative approach that helps alleviate the health disparity in developing countries and improve health service accessibility, affordability, and quality. Few studies have focused on the social and organizational issues involved in telemedicine, despite in-depth studies of and significant improvements in these technologies. This paper used evolutionary game theory to analyze behavioral strategies and their dynamic evolution in the implementation and operation of telemedicine. Further, numerical simulation was carried out to develop management strategies for promoting telemedicine as a new way of delivering health services. The results showed that: (1) When the benefits are greater than the costs, the higher medical institutions (HMIs), primary medical institutions (PMIs), and patients positively promote telemedicine with benign interactions; (2) when the costs are greater than the benefits, the stability strategy of HMIs, PMIs, and patients is, respectively, ‘no efforts’, ‘no efforts’, and ‘non-acceptance’; and (3) promotion of telemedicine is influenced by the initial probability of the ‘HMI efforts’, ‘PMI efforts’, and ‘patients’ acceptance’ strategy chosen by the three stakeholders, telemedicine costs, and the reimbursement ratio of such costs. Based on theoretical analysis, in order to verify the theoretical model, this paper introduces the case study of a telemedicine system integrated with health resources at provincial, municipal, county, and township level in Guizhou. The findings of the case study were consistent with the theoretical analysis. Therefore, the central Chinese government and local governments should pay attention to the running cost of MIs and provide financial support when the costs are greater than the benefits. At the same time, the government should raise awareness of telemedicine and increase participation by all three stakeholders. Lastly, in order to promote telemedicine effectively, it is recommended that telemedicine services are incorporated within the scope of medical insurance and the optimal reimbursement ratio is used.
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spelling pubmed-69816102020-02-03 Tripartite Data Analysis for Optimizing Telemedicine Operations: Evidence from Guizhou Province in China Yu, Jinna Zhang, Tingting Liu, Zhen Hatab, Assem Abu Lan, Jing Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Telemedicine is an innovative approach that helps alleviate the health disparity in developing countries and improve health service accessibility, affordability, and quality. Few studies have focused on the social and organizational issues involved in telemedicine, despite in-depth studies of and significant improvements in these technologies. This paper used evolutionary game theory to analyze behavioral strategies and their dynamic evolution in the implementation and operation of telemedicine. Further, numerical simulation was carried out to develop management strategies for promoting telemedicine as a new way of delivering health services. The results showed that: (1) When the benefits are greater than the costs, the higher medical institutions (HMIs), primary medical institutions (PMIs), and patients positively promote telemedicine with benign interactions; (2) when the costs are greater than the benefits, the stability strategy of HMIs, PMIs, and patients is, respectively, ‘no efforts’, ‘no efforts’, and ‘non-acceptance’; and (3) promotion of telemedicine is influenced by the initial probability of the ‘HMI efforts’, ‘PMI efforts’, and ‘patients’ acceptance’ strategy chosen by the three stakeholders, telemedicine costs, and the reimbursement ratio of such costs. Based on theoretical analysis, in order to verify the theoretical model, this paper introduces the case study of a telemedicine system integrated with health resources at provincial, municipal, county, and township level in Guizhou. The findings of the case study were consistent with the theoretical analysis. Therefore, the central Chinese government and local governments should pay attention to the running cost of MIs and provide financial support when the costs are greater than the benefits. At the same time, the government should raise awareness of telemedicine and increase participation by all three stakeholders. Lastly, in order to promote telemedicine effectively, it is recommended that telemedicine services are incorporated within the scope of medical insurance and the optimal reimbursement ratio is used. MDPI 2020-01-06 2020-01 /pmc/articles/PMC6981610/ /pubmed/31935950 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010375 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Yu, Jinna
Zhang, Tingting
Liu, Zhen
Hatab, Assem Abu
Lan, Jing
Tripartite Data Analysis for Optimizing Telemedicine Operations: Evidence from Guizhou Province in China
title Tripartite Data Analysis for Optimizing Telemedicine Operations: Evidence from Guizhou Province in China
title_full Tripartite Data Analysis for Optimizing Telemedicine Operations: Evidence from Guizhou Province in China
title_fullStr Tripartite Data Analysis for Optimizing Telemedicine Operations: Evidence from Guizhou Province in China
title_full_unstemmed Tripartite Data Analysis for Optimizing Telemedicine Operations: Evidence from Guizhou Province in China
title_short Tripartite Data Analysis for Optimizing Telemedicine Operations: Evidence from Guizhou Province in China
title_sort tripartite data analysis for optimizing telemedicine operations: evidence from guizhou province in china
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6981610/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31935950
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010375
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