Awareness and readiness to use telemonitoring to support diabetes care among care providers at teaching hospitals in Ethiopia: An institution-based cross-sectional study

Abstract Background. Telemonitoring(TM) has great potential in the management of chronically ill patients and could help to improve the quality of the patient's life while reducing healthcare costs and care providers' overload. It is important to assess the keenness level of care providers to use and maximize benefit of using technologies in chronic care. This survey aimed to assess the awareness and readiness of care providers to support diabetes patients through TM technology. Methods. An institution-based cross-sectional quantitative survey was conducted by using a pretested self-administered questionnaire on 423 study participants at teaching hospitals in northwest Ethiopia. Data entry and analysis were done using Epi-data version 4.6 and STATA version 14 software, respectively. The mean, percentage, and standard deviation were calculated to describe the characteristics of participants. A binary logistic regression analysis method was used to identify factors associated with awareness. The ordinal logistic regression analysis method was used to identify factors associated with readiness, however, the partial proportional odds model was fitted due to violation of the proportional assumption. Result. A total of 406 participants (69.7%, n= 283 nurses and 30.3%, n=123 physicians) were completed survey. A high proportion of respondents owned a computer (66%) or a smartphone (80%). Overall, 38.7% of Participants have heard about TM, when it came to readiness, the majority of the study participants, 321(25.1%) and 121(65.5%) have average and low readiness towards TM, respectively. The result of regression analysis show that the participant’s technical skills, access to basic technologies, and attitude were significantly associated with both outcome variables.Conclusion. The findings of this survey revealed low awareness and readiness of participant’s towards TM. However, this study suggests the need of improving participant's attitudes, access to smartphones and computers, and technical skills to fill this gap.