Telemedicine Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude, and Skills of Health Care Workers in a Low-Resource Country During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Study

Elhadi, Muhammed; Elhadi, Ahmed; Bouhuwaish, Ahmad; Bin Alshiteewi, Fatimah; Elmabrouk, Amna; Alsuyihili, Ali; Alhashimi, Ayiman; Khel, Samer; Elgherwi, Alsafa; Alsoufi, Ahmed; Albakoush, Ahmed; Abdulmalik, Abdulmuez

BACKGROUND: Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, several health care programs intended to provide telemedicine services have been introduced in Libya. Many physicians have used these services to provide care and advice to their patients remotely. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to provide an overview of physicians’ awareness, knowledge, attitude, and skill in using telehealth services in Libya. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we administered a web-based survey to health care workers in Libya in May 2020. The questionnaire collected information on physicians’ general demographic characteristics, ability to use a computer, and telemedicine awareness, knowledge, attitude, and skills. RESULTS: Among 673 health care workers who responded to the survey, 377 (56%) and 248 (36.8%) reported high awareness and high computer skill scores, respectively, for telemedicine. Furthermore, 582 (86.5%) and 566 (82.6%) health care workers reported high knowledge and high attitude scores, respectively. We observed no significant differences in awareness, knowledge, attitude, and skill scores among physicians employed at public, private, or both types of hospitals. We observed significant differences in the mean awareness (P<.001), attitude (P=.001), and computer skill scores (P<.001) , where the score distribution of the groups based on the ability to use computers was not similar. Knowledge scores did not significantly differ among the three groups (P=.37). Respondents with professional computer skills had significantly higher awareness (χ(2)(3)=14.5; P<.001) and attitude (χ(2)(3)=13.5; P=.001) scores than those without professional computer skills. We observed significant differences in the mean computer skill scores of the groups (χ(2)(3)=199.6; P<.001). CONCLUSIONS: The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are expected to persist for a long time. Hence, policy programs such as telemedicine services, which aim to address the obstacles to medical treatment owing to physical distancing measures, will likely continue for a long time. Therefore, there is a need to train and support health care workers and initiate government programs that provide adequate and supportive health care services to patients in transitional countries.