Considerations for Creating a User-Friendly Telemedicine Service in Japan

Telemedicine aims to slow the spread of infection, enhance the quality and cost of healthcare, and increase patient engagement and satisfaction. Recently, the Japanese government has promoted the use of telemedicine. Despite the efforts of the government, the service is not in widespread use in Japan, even in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study aims to assess the awareness of telemedicine among Japanese older adults and learn about their experiences with the service. Furthermore, it aims to understand the patients' needs and perspectives for creating a user-friendly telemedicine service. Therefore, one hundred and ten outpatients with chronic diseases were contacted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and data were collected from them using face-to-face questionnaires. Group 1 and group 2 separately include 55 patients aged 40 to 64 years, and 65 years and above, respectively. Statistical analyses were conducted using Microsoft Excel 2019, AutoSum feature "Ʃ," with statistical significance set at P < .05 by t-test, to compare the means of the 2 groups of participants. The survey results revealed that one patient in each group (2 out of 110 people) had experience using the remote consultation service. The acceptance of telemedicine concept by age and gender was found to be greater among middle-aged adults (2.9, SD 0.7) and male patients (2.9, SD 0.6) than among older adults (2.5, SD 0.8) and female patients (2.5, SD 0.9), and the difference in each aspect was significant (P = .012, 0.024), respectively. Middle-aged adults (2.8, SD 0.6) were also found to be more willing to use the service in the future than older adults (2.5, SD 0.7), and the difference was significant (P = .037). On the other hand, the limited use of telemedicine among the study participants was due to the following main factors; limited knowledge of the service, usability challenges of technology, and cultural factors. Regarding the development of telemedicine, key recommendations were made for creating a user-friendly telemedicine that meets the needs of as many as possible of patients. In conclusion, there are challenges that affect the growth of telemedicine in Japan. Therefore, learning about the patients' perspectives and needs play an important role in increasing telemedicine utilization. The outcomes of the present study will be useful to researchers, designers, engineers, and all those interested in this field of research.