ObjectivesThis study aimed at determining access to mobile phone and willingness to receive mobile phone-based diabetes health services as well as identify associated factors in Northwest Ethiopia.DesignAn institution-based cross-sectional survey was conducted from February to March 2016.ParticipantsSystematic randomly selected 423 patients with diabetes.SettingUniversity of Gondar Hospital diabetic clinic.Main outcome measuresThe main outcome measure was willingness to receive diabetic health service via mobile phone voice call or messaging services.ResultsOut of 423 patients with diabetes, 329 (77.8%) had access to a mobile phone. Among the latter, 232 (70.5%) were willing to receive mobile phone-based health services. The educational status of patients (adjusted OR (AOR): 2.6 (95% CI: 1.2 to 5.58)), route of medication (AOR: 3.2 (95% CI: 1.44 to 7.1)), transportation mechanism (AOR: 4.1 (95% CI: 1.2 to 13.57)), travel time to health facility (AOR: 0.3 (95% CI: 0.12 to 0.82)), current use of mobile phone as appointment reminder (AOR: 2.6 (95% CI: 1.07 to 6.49)) and locking mobile phone with passwords (AOR: 4.6 (95% CI: 1.63 to 12.95)) were significantly associated with the willingness to receive mobile phone-based diabetic health services.ConclusionAccess to a mobile phone and willingness to receive mobile phone-based health services were high. Educational status, route of medication, transportation mechanism, time to reach the service, using mobile phone as appointment reminder and locking mobile phone with passwords were significantly associated factors. Given the high proportion of access and willingness of patients to receive mobile phone-based health services, mHealth interventions could be helpful.

No abstract

Background Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is an important component of modern medicine and is essential for the provision of high-quality health services. Little is known about the level of EBM use among Ethiopian medical students. This study aimed to assess the factors associated with EBM practice among medical interns in teaching hospitals in northwestern Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted using a random sample of medical interns in teaching hospitals of northwest Ethiopia. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with EBM practice. The strength of the interaction between variables was calculated using the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). Results Completed questionnaire was obtained from 403 (95.3%) of 423 medical interns. About 48.4% of respondents had a good EBM practice. EBM knowledge (AOR = 1.86, 95% CI = 1.220–2.835), attitude to EBM (AOR = 2.05, 95% CI = 1.318–3.193), ability to appraise evidence (AOR = 2.35, 95% CI = 1.570–3.517), and having sufficient time to search for evidence (AOR = 1.67, 95% CI = 1.065–2.627) were factors significantly associated to EBM practice. Conclusion This study demonstrates that the main factors affecting medical intern’s practice of EBM were lack of critical appraisal skill, lack of knowledge needed to practice EBM, negative attitudes toward EBM, and insufficient time to search for evidence. Providing EBM training to the needs of medical interns would overcome the barriers identified in this study, as well as assist medical interns and other clinical staffs to ensure the correct application of EBM in to clinical practice.

Introduction In resource-limited settings incorporating the Telemedicine system into the healthcare system enhances exchanging valid health information for practicing evidence-based medicine for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases. Despite its great importance, the adoption of telemedicine in low-income country settings, like Ethiopia, was lagging and increasingly failed. Assessing the readiness of health professionals before the actual adoption of telemedicine is considered the prominent solution to tackle the problem. However, little is known about Health professionals’ telemedicine readiness in this study setting. Objective Accordingly, this study aimed to assess health professionals’ readiness and its associated factors to implement a Telemedicine system at private hospitals in North West, Ethiopia. Materials and methods An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 3 to April 7, 2021. A total of 423 health professionals working in private hospitals were selected using a simple random sampling technique. Multi-variable logistic regression was fitted to identify determinant factors of health professional readiness after the other covariates were controlled. Result In this study the overall readiness of telemedicine adoption was 65.4% (n = 268) [95% CI:60.1–69.8]. Knowledge (AOR = 2.5;95% CI: [1.4, 4.6]), Attitude (AOR = 3.2;95% CI: [1.6, 6.2]), computer literacy (AOR = 2.2; 95% CI: [1.3, 3.9]), computer training (AOR = 2.1;95% CI: [1.1, 4.1]), Computer skill (AOR = 1.9;95% CI: [1.1, 3.4]), computer access at office (AOR = 2.1;95% CI: [1.1, 3.7]), Internet access at office (AOR = 2.8; 95% CI: [1.6, 5.1]), Own personal computer (AOR = 3.0; 95% CI: [1.5, 5.9]) and work experience (AOR = 3.1; 95% CI: [1.4, 6.7]) were significantly associated with the overall health professionals readiness for the adoption of telemedicine using a cut point of p-value lessthan 0.05. Conclusion and recommendation Around two-thirds of the respondents had a good level of overall readiness for the adoption of telemedicine. The finding implied that less effort is required to improve readiness before the implementation of telemedicine. This findings implied that respondents who had good knowledge and a favorable attitude toward telemedicine were more ready for such technology. Capacity building is needed Enhance computer literacy, and computer skills building their confidence to rise ready for such technology. Building their capacity through training, building good internet connection, and availability of computers, where the necessary measures to improve Telemedicine readiness in this setting. Additionally, further studies are recommended to encompass all types of telemedicine readiness such as organizational readiness, technology readiness, societal readiness, and so on. Additionally, exploring the healthcare provider opinion with qualitative study and extending the proposed study to other implementation settings are recommended to be addressed in future works. The study has a positive impact on the successful implementation and use of telemedicine throughout hospitals at countries level by providing pertinent information about health professionals’ preparedness status. Therefore, implementing telemedicine will have a significant contribution to the health system performance improvement in terms of providing quality care, accessibility to health facilities, reduction of costs, and creating a platform for communication between health professionals across different health institutions for providing quality patient care.

Background: -Telemedicine is the delivery of healthcare services at a distance. Despite it is an emerging and infancy technology in a developing country, utilizing the technology for delivering healthcare services is low in Ethiopia. To maximize and facilitate Telemedicine adoption it prominently requires information about the knowledge and awareness of telemedicine services among health professionals.Methods: - An institution-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 423 health professionals working at Amhara Region Referral Hospitals from February 12-March 20/2020. The data were collected using a self-administered structured questionnaire. Desk review was done to assure the data quality and then data was entered into EPI INFO version 7 and exported into SPSS version 20 for statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics, bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were done. The odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was used to identify associated factors.Result: About 56% of health professionals had good knowledge and 57.4% had high awareness towards telemedicine services with a 411 (97.2%) response rate. Information sharing culture [AOR=3.01, 95% CI: 1.89, 4.80], having IT support staff [AOR=1.87, 95%CI: 1.06, 3.29], internet as information source [AOR=1.80, 95%CI:1.1, 2.94], awareness [AOR=1.35,95% CI: 1.03, 2.40], being male [AOR=1.73,95% CI:1.06, 2.81] were significantly associated with the knowledge of the respondents towards telemedicine services and telemedicine training [AOR= 2.33, 95% CI: 1.15, 4.72] and computer accessibility in their hospitals [AOR= 1.54, 95% CI: 1.01, 2.35] were significantly associated with the awareness of the respondents towards telemedicine services.Conclusion: More than half of the respondents had good knowledge and high awareness of telemedicine services. Information sources, having IT support staff, information sharing culture, gender and awareness were significant factors for the knowledge of telemedicine service, and telemedicine training and computer access were significant factors of awareness of health professionals towards telemedicine services. Therefore Appropriate and regular awareness creation training of telemedicine systems should be given to the health professional.