Public knowledge, perception, and expressed choice of telemedicine in rural West Virginia.

Objective: It is doubtful that any new health care delivery system that requires as much adjustment as telemedicine does will be sustained if its users do not fully support it. We sought to determine the familiarity with, perceptions of, and attitudes toward telemedicine among rural adults in West Virginia.

Methods: Data were collected in a statewide telephone survey of 461 non-institutionalized rural adults. The survey contained questions about familiarity with telemedicine, perceptions about its attributes and benefits, and willingness to use it for routine, specialty, and emergency care. Responses were examined in relation to the subjects' age, sex, socioeconomic status, access to care, and insurance coverage.

Results: Despite mass media coverage of the subject, only one third of the respondents had heard of telemedicine. Nearly two thirds thought patients would find it less satisfactory than seeing a physician in person. Male subjects, younger subjects, and those with higher incomes were more likely to think telemedicine would be as satisfactory as a face-to-face meeting. There was a general consensus on the benefits of telemedicine, such as greater convenience and easier contact with specialists. For chronic conditions, 47% of the respondents would use telemedicine if no physician was available locally, whereas 27% would go out of town to see another physician in person, and 25% would wait for their own physician. For emergency care, these figures were 41%, 58%, and 0. Three fourths of the respondents were somewhat or very willing to use telemedicine for routine or specialist care.

Conclusion: More work needs to be done to demonstrate the efficacy of telemedicine and disseminate this knowledge to the public.