Physicians' attitudes towards health telematics--an empirical survey

Telemedical networks and services have received high attention in professional and scientific media in the recent past. In Germany some institutions and few physicians volunteer in experimenting with diverse telemedical service offerings. However, much is speculated but little is known about attitudes and expectations of the majority of physicians in local offices towards this new medium. Therefore we conducted an empirical survey using a random regional sample to poll the respective opinions. Encouraged by a high response rate to our paper questionnaire, we offer as conclusion: that physicians are surprisingly realistic about costs and benefits and can therefore be expected to subscribe as soon as benefits become obvious; that this trend increases with offices being taken over or newly established by younger physicians; and that the establishment of networks of comprehensive care offered by health care professionals from different disciplines is regarded as essential future advantage of telemedical networks.