Barriers to Telemedicine Uptake in Australia

This report analyzes the barriers to telemedicine uptake in Australia and suggests ways to address them. Learn about the challenges of inadequate funding and time, poor infrastructure, inadequate equipment skills, and traditional approach preference.

Running head: AUSTRALIAN TELEMEDICINE UPTAKE BARRIERS 1
TELEMEDICINE BARRIERS UPTAKE IN AUSTRALIA
Student Name
Institution Affiliation
Facilitator
Course
Date

AUSTRALIAN TELEMEDICINE UPTAKE BARRIERS 2
Introduction
Telemedicine refers to the remote delivery of services which are related to healthcare via
the telecommunications infrastructure (Hassibian & Hassibian, 2016). Such healthcare services
delivered include consultations and assessments related to health among others. Telemedicine
enables the healthcare experts to treat patients after evaluation and diagnosis by use of a common
technology without an in-person visit or rather physical presence by use of smart-phones and
video conferencing among other advanced technologies. This report will analyze various barriers
to telemedicine uptake in Australia and suggest ways in which they can be addressed to improve
healthcare access in Australia. Healthier population maintenance is among the top goals in every
nation.
Discussion
Healthcare service delivery by use of advanced technology has been the major issue of
concern in Australia for a long period of time not only in Australia but also in various nations
around the world. Telemedicine enables the provision of healthcare services cheaply by use of
various technologies as mentioned previously such as telephones, video conferencing, email and
facsimile among others. Telemedicine uptake in Australia has faced various barriers which
hinder its adoption in various parts of Australia. Some of these barriers include inadequate
funding and time, poor infrastructure, inadequate equipment skills and the traditional approach
preference (Bradford, Caffery & Smith, 2016).
Inadequate Funding and Time
Telemedicine uptake has been faced with the barrier of inadequate funding and time not
only in Australia but in other parts of the world. Doctors especially the GPs and other health

AUSTRALIAN TELEMEDICINE UPTAKE BARRIERS 3
experts with whom they work with are not funded in order to conduct consultations related to
telemedicine. Telemedicine staffs in various Australian remote sites are not provided with
financial incentives and this makes telemedicine less cost-effective towards the providers
(doctors) side (Wade, Soar & Gray, 2014). In Australia, Medicare does not remunerate
consultations of telemedicine. Also, telemedicine involves many tasks and hence it becomes
costly towards the practitioner as more time is involved on top of the absence of remuneration.
For example, considering the teledermatology consultation, it can take approximately close to 30
minutes centrally to the traditionally allowed consultation time. The extra time is taken may be
hard to be paid to the practitioner. Therefore, lack of remuneration and time towards
telemedicine experts has been a barrier towards telemedicine uptake in Australia.
Inadequate Equipment Skills
In Australia, technology is advancing at a fast pace. This calls for a necessary adjustment
in various Australian sectors inclusive of the telemedicine sector. It has been hard for many
telemedicine practitioners to adjust to the use of various equipment in their field with technology
advancement (Jang-Jaccard et al, 2014). For example, some are unable to effectively use the X-
ray equipment to produce a clarified X-ray image for better assessment. This may lead to
misunderstandings among practitioners in various remote sites or rather different locations
within Australia. Some doctors in Australian rural areas have inadequate information technology
skills due to inadequate training and this has contributed much towards the barriers to
telemedicine uptake in Australia.
Inadequate Infrastructure

AUSTRALIAN TELEMEDICINE UPTAKE BARRIERS 4
Telemedicine uptake has faced the barrier of inadequate and poor infrastructure in
Australia. The rural and remote Australian areas have poor internet connectivity. Such areas have
low broadband which makes internet unreliable and hence results in the poor assessment of
various health issues. These areas also have low bandwidth which is available for video
conferencing. Also, these areas lack adequate computers and even software compatible with their
cameras and all these have created a barrier towards the telemedicine uptake in Australia
(Weinstein et al, 2014).
Traditional Approach Preference
Some practitioners especially the older doctors (including older GPs) prefer to stick to
their traditional approaches. This has made them reluctant to update their skills with the
advancement in technology as they find it hard to understand the modern skills (Wade, Eliott &
Hiller, 2014). This also makes them to lack confidence as they make a diagnosis by use of
modern technology. The lack of confidence and reluctance to adopt advanced technology has
been a barrier towards the telemedicine uptake in Australia.
How Telemedicine Uptake Barriers in Australia can be addressed
The Australian government should consider revision of its funding eligibility according
to Medicare. The Australian “Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS)” is associated with
disincentives which discourage telemedicine practitioners from adopting it (Bindi, 2017). The
MBS only funds telemedicine services to medical experts for patient consultations outside
metropolitan areas and also the patient is required to be far away from closest practice by about
15 kilometers. Statistics indicate that about only 4 percent of telemedicine services conducted get
Medicare funding. The government should consider revising these eligibility criteria to provide

AUSTRALIAN TELEMEDICINE UPTAKE BARRIERS 5
the required Medicare funding to telemedicine practitioners and hence encourage telemedicine
uptake.
The Australian government should continue improving network connectivity and other
infrastructure in rural and remote areas. For instance, during the year 2017, the “Australian
Medical Association (AMA)” required the government to avail strong and reliable broadband to
rural and remote areas to improve healthcare access in these areas. This has been the case with
the Western and Victorian government who have as well allocated AU$22 million and AU$5
million for improvement of telemedicine services in their areas especially telecommunication
(Poultney, Maeder & Basilakis, 2015). An improvement has been noted although much needs to
be done to streamline telemedicine services in the Australian remote areas and improve the
nation’s healthcare access.
The Australian government should offer adequate training on telemedicine practitioners
and educate the older GPs on the importance and merits of adopting telemedicine (Bonney et al,
2015). The practitioners especially those in rural areas should be adequately trained and provided
with the necessary equipment in order to improve telemedicine uptake in Australia. The
telemedicine practitioners should acquire training regularly after a certain duration to keep them
in pace with the advancing technology (Muir, 2014). This will highly encourage telemedicine
uptake in various Australian areas.
Conclusion
The Australian telemedicine uptake has been faced with various challenges which act as barriers
towards its uptake. Some of these barriers include inadequate funding and time, poor
infrastructure, inadequate equipment skills, and the traditional approach preference. The

AUSTRALIAN TELEMEDICINE UPTAKE BARRIERS 6
Australian government should address the various barriers encountered accordingly. The
Medicare funding eligibility should be reformed to offer adequate funding to telemedicine
practitioners, adequate infrastructure especially network connectivity and telemedicine
equipment should be availed in remote areas and telemedicine practitioners should be trained
regularly especially those in remote areas to keep them in pace with the advancing technology.
Telemedicine is a crucial issue in the Australian health sector and should be upgraded so as to
ease Australian healthcare access.

AUSTRALIAN TELEMEDICINE UPTAKE BARRIERS 7
References
Bindi, T. (2017, April 05). How Australia can overcome multiple barriers to drive telehealth
adoption. Retrieved from https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-australia-can-overcome-
multiple-barriers-to-drive-telehealth-adoption/
Bonney, A., Knight-Billington, P., Mullan, J., Moscova, M., Barnett, S., Iverson, D., & Wilson,
I. (2015). The telehealth skills, training, and implementation project: an evaluation
protocol. JMIR research protocols, 4(1), e2.
Bradford, N. K., Caffery, L. J., & Smith, A. C. (2016). Telehealth services in rural and remote
Australia: a systematic review of models of care and factors influencing success and
sustainability. Rural and remote health, 16(4), 3808.
Hassibian, M. R., & Hassibian, S. (2016). Telemedicine acceptance and implementation in
developing countries: benefits, categories, and barriers. Razavi Int J Med, 4(3), e38332.
Jang-Jaccard, J., Nepal, S., Alem, L., & Li, J. (2014). Barriers for delivering telehealth in rural
Australia: a review based on Australian trials and studies. Telemedicine and e-
Health, 20(5), 496-504.
Muir, J. (2014). Telehealth: the specialist perspective. Australian family physician, 43(12), 828.
Poultney, N., Maeder, A., & Basilakis, J. (2015). Evaluation: study of Australian telehealth
projects.
Wade, V. A., Eliott, J. A., & Hiller, J. E. (2014). Clinician acceptance is the key factor for
sustainable telehealth services. Qualitative health research, 24(5), 682-694.

AUSTRALIAN TELEMEDICINE UPTAKE BARRIERS 8
Wade, V., Soar, J., & Gray, L. (2014). Uptake of telehealth services funded by Medicare in
Australia. Australian Health Review, 38(5), 528-532.
Weinstein, R. S., Lopez, A. M., Joseph, B. A., Erps, K. A., Holcomb, M., Barker, G. P., &
Krupinski, E. A. (2014). Telemedicine, telehealth, and mobile health applications that
work: opportunities and barriers. The American journal of medicine, 127(3), 183-187.