Telemedicine: Improving Healthcare Access in the UAE - Proposal

This research proposal aims to explore the role of telemedicine in improving healthcare access within the UAE for a period of three years. It outlines the rationale for the study, emphasizing the potential of telemedicine to address existing barriers to healthcare access, such as geographical limita...Read More

Running head: TELEMEDICINE
Telemedicine
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Project title:
Exploring the role of telemedicine in improving the access to healthcare in UAE
Overview:
In the current era, different segments of the medical industry have adopted the
technology in order to provide benefits to the patient. Integrating technology in the healthcare
setting gained huge popularity because of more convenient tracking, regulatory and monitory
benefits of technology. The onset of innovation in the technical field, telemedicine is a game
changer to serve people throughout the world. A study by Alaboudi et al. (2016), suggested that
the accepatnce of telemedicine in health care has increased significantly, approximately more
than 80% of the emergency health issues can be taken care with the assistance of telemedicine.
With just a simple click in the smartphone, a physician can enable providers to diagnose and
treat minor health issues such as sinusitis, pharyngitis and the common cold. Therefore,
mounting evidence highlighted that integrating technologies like telemedicine has significantly
improved access to health care services (Alaboudi et al., 2015). Although there are innumerable
benefits of telemedicine, the adaption of telemedicine within UAE is laden with critical
challenges (Khoja & Sheeshah, 2018). This issue is worth studying because literature showed
that in UAE, different individuals’ highlighted different point of view about the role of
telemedicine and therefore, my interest in this topic is to explore the role of telemedicine through
consumer’s interview and literature review for three years. This paper will illustrate the aim of
the study, rationale, research question, literature review, methodology, research philosophy,
limitation of the study, ethical consideration, and expected outcome in following paragraphs.

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The rationale for your proposed study:
In the era of modern technology, the benefits associated with telemedicine are gradually
marking the medical industry to provide high-quality patient-centric care through improving the
accessibility to health care services (Al-Khathaami et al., 2015). However, literature identified
that a considerate number of the individuals’ in UAE unable to access the healthcare services.
This issue is crucial because as discussed by Mahalli (2015), there are country-specific barriers,
organization-specific barriers, patient, and medical staff specific barriers are identified. A study
suggested that a considerate number of individuals have inadequate knowledge of using
technology that hinders them to gain access to the health care services (Al-Khathaami et al.,
2015). Another study Alsulame, Khalifa & Househ (2016), suggested that although majority of
individuals gained access to health care facilities, confidentiality and privacy become an issue.
Therefore, primary research and secondary research need to conduct in order to understand the
point of view of the consumers in improving health care services. Ministry of Happiness in UAE
will be able to provide data on the customer experience of the health industry in UAE that would
be helpful to conduct the research.
An aim of your study:
The study intends to explore the role of telemedicine in improving health care services
within the UAE population for a time span of three years
Objectives of your study:
The research objectives are:

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1. To explore the role of telemedicine in improving access to health care services for a
period of three years in accordance to the perspective of the consumer
2. To examine the barriers that hinder the population of UAE from the accessibility to
health care services for three years
3. To suggest the possible mitigation measures that can tackle the barriers and improve
accessibility to healthcare services
Research question:
Can adopting telemedicine services be effective to improve access to health care services
within the population of UAE?
Literature review:
With the growing importance of technology in the medical industry, telemedicine is
making its mark around the globe. However, it is crucial to realize that integration of the
telemedicine like technology in the medical field does not eliminate the visits to the doctors
rather technologies like telemedicine enhance the accessibility to the health care services without
visiting doctors. A study by Hassan et al. (2018), suggested that telemedicine improves the
public accessibility to information, care assistance, improves professional education, quality
control to the screening program and reduces cost related to healthcare facilities. Alaboudi et al.
(2016), argued that merging telemedicine with the health care industry not only improve the
accessibility to the health care services but also eliminate any chances of transmitting infectious
disease from a patient to the health care professionals. Dawoud et al. (2017), also reported the

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time-saving benefits and most important aspect of the telemedicine is that it’s ability to meet the
health care needs of patient any time at any place. Alsulame, Khalifa and Househ (2016),
highlighted that individuals living in the remote areas of UAE who are suffering from the
transportation gained accessibility to the health care services. Indeed, telemedicine plays a
crucial role in improving the accessibility of health care services. However, exploration of
diverse relevant literature highlighted a number of barriers that hinder population of UAE to gain
access to the health care services. Alassafi et al. (2016), highlighted that e-health literacy was
listed as one of the crucial barriers to the accessibility of health care services in the UAE
population. A considerate number of individuals in the UAE lives are unaware of the knowledge
of using technology and thereby, unable to access the health care services. Another survey by
Ghani and Jaber (2015), reported that Confidentiality and privacy issues are the second major
barrier of improving accessibility to the health care services highlighted by the vast number of
individuals in the population. The Barriers include the breaching of the personal health
information that can occur due to the unsecured network or uncryptic hardware accessed by the
third party. Another study AlBar & Hoque (2018), highlighted that patient’s lack of
understanding regarding the security of the telemedicine is making them resistant to the changes.
On a different note, gaining inadequate knowledge of using telemedicine of the medical staffs
hinders the communication with the patients. As discussed by Dwivedi et al. (2018), patients
may ask to repeat the x-ray or other tests and may give different medications, this imposes a
threat to patient’s safety. The change of health care providers who would be available at a
particular time also imposes a threat to patient safety due to the difference in treatment
procedures (Alharbi et al., 2016). Besides, diverse literature highlighted the reluctance of health
professionals to provide personal care to the patients over the smartphone and therefore it is

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difficult to implement the use of the telemedicine in existing practices. Ghani, Jaber and
Suryana, (2015), highlighted that other barriers such as many health care settings are resistant to
adopt the telemedicine due to lack of vision. Therefore, although Saudi Arabia has spent billions
of dollars to develop and improve the quality of health care delivery through increasing
accessibility to health care services, the mentioned barriers hinder the accessibility of health care
services for the common people (Dawoud et al., 2017). Therefore, to develop an understanding
about the role of telemedicine and what hinders population to gain access, both primary and
secondary research needs to be conducted.
Methodology:
Research Philosophy:
The research philosophy emphasizes the perception of the research execution and
utilization of methodological attributes. The research philosophy defines the research method
and the selection of the tools as well. Depending on the data collection and research techniques,
the research philosophies can be classified into three categories namely Positivism Research
Philosophy, Interpretivism Philosophy, and Realism Research Philosophy (McCusker &
Gunaydin, 2015). This research is highly based on real-time data collection and mathematical
data analysis. Therefore, to explore the underlying factors behind Telemedicine and its prospect
this research will follow the Positivism research philosophy.
Research design and approach:
The research design defines the way of constructing the research with the proper
sequence to optimize the utilization while keeping the authenticity. The purpose of this research

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is to explore the crucial attributes and potential outcomes of Tele-healthcare facilities in the
healthcare market of UAE. Therefore, the research design is based on the exploration of
interlinked facts and rational understanding. Therefore, among exploratory, explanatory and
descriptive research design this research would use the exploratory research design to keep the
research construction aligned with the objectives (Palinkas et al., 2015). On the other hand, the
research approach refers to the approach of utilizing tools and formulating the conclusion.
Depending on the formulation procedure the approach can be Inductive, Deductive and
Adductive (Bowling, 2014). This research does not have any previous assumption or declared
hypothesis. Therefore, the approach of this research will be inductive.
Data collection and Sampling:
The data collection method for this research will be based on the primary data collection
that used the survey questionnaire to collect adequate information from the target data field. The
survey questionnaire will be designed with semi-structured blueprint where the demographical
data collection will be conducted along with the Likert scale multiple choice questions (Bowling,
2014). The sampling strategy of this research will be random or probability sampling while
involving 30 random consumers of the healthcare industry as respondents. 5 participants would
be randomly selected for the interview. They would be (1) fluent in English (2) health care
consumers (3) at least year of experience in using telemedicine services. The interview would be
conducted in face to face interaction mode and open-ended questionnaire prepared. This mode of
the questionnaire would provide participants an opportunity to discuss their feelings and
perceptions about the improvements of accessibility of the health care service (Bowling, 2014).
Similar kind of questions should be used for each participant for gaining a different perspective
on the same question. The interviews would be audiotaped and written.

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To get the answer to the research question, articles for the review would be selected from
the databases that publish the biomedical research literature. Medline, CINAHL, and PubMed
are some of the electronic databases that would use to obtain high-quality academic research.
The key terms would be used are including “ telemedicine”, “ role of telemedicine in improving
accessibility to the health care’, “ barriers of using telemedicine in UAE”. Specific inclusion and
exclusion criteria would be chosen for the research that is present as a table:
Inclusion criteria Exclusion criteria
 All relevant journal that will be
included must have been
published within last 10 years
 All peer review journals would
be included
 All journals identifying the
role of the telemedicine in
accessibility of health care in
would be included
 All articles using English
language would included
 All articles identifying barriers
of using telemedicine would be
included
 All paper more than 10 years
will be excluded
 All of the hand written
documents and journals other
than peer reviewed would be
excluded
 All journals identifying other
than role of the telemedicine in
accessibility of health care
would be excluded.
 All articles using other than
English language would
excluded
 All articles identifying other
than barriers of using
telemedicine would be

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excluded
Data analysis:
For analysis of the survey, percentage distribution would be done for gaining an
understanding of the perspective of the participants regarding the role of the telemedicine
(Palinkas et al., 2015). For analysing the data of the interview, qualitative data analysis software
program would be used for gaining the perspective of consumers in the telemedicine. The
rationale behind using this program is that it would help to obtain the accurate interpretation of
result. The data would be reviewed by other expertise in evaluating the authenticity of the results
(Palinkas et al., 2015).
For analysis the secondary research, after selecting suitable research paper, the quality
assessment would be done using evidence-based quality assessment tool such as CASP. After
obtaining the result, for evaluating and biases Cochrane Risk of Bias Assessment tool would be
used for identifying the potential biases. Themes would be generated from these papers to
identify the role in improvements of accessibility in health care.
Limitation of the study:
In the viewpoint of Flick (2018), there are bound to be a number of limitations of a
research study, the period is always the biggest limitation of the study. The availability of

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resources also remain as a barrier of the research. Moreover, the availability of the participants
for the interview and survey is another potential bias for conducting the study within the period.
The cultural homogeneity is also a potential bias of the study since the study would be conducted
in the United Arab Emirates. Another potential bias of the study is that the perspective of the
participants that would be varied. Responses gained by the respondents are not enough to gain a
particular outcome. In addition to this, there might be problems related to gaining permission of
the interview dates from respondents.
Ethical consideration:
Maintaining ethics while conducting the research is crucial and hence care should be
taken by the interviewers to follow all ethical principles (Smith, 2015). For primary research
such as interview and survey, privacy and confidentiality of the information obtained would be
maintained. All of the results of the interview and survey would be kept in a locker for no
leakage of the data. Moreover, no participants would be forced to disclose or discuss by
participants they do not want to disclose or discuss. The details of the interview and survey
interview would be discussed with the participants and written participants would be taken from
them so that no legal obligations can rise further.
Expected outcome:
The successful completion of the research would help to gain the perspective of the
consumers in UAE about the role of the telemedicine in the improving the access to the health
care services. It also gives the idea of the emotional turmoil that goes in within their mind when
they failed to gain the accessibility of the health care services. The successful completion of the
result would help researchers to identify the barriers for improving accessibility to the health care

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services and design policies for minimizing the barriers in order to enhance the delivery of
patient-centric care. Moreover, the expected outcome would raise awareness amongst common
people as well as health professionals to minimize the barriers like e-health illiteracy and
improve the accessibility of the disease. Consequently, the contributing factors in increasing
global burden such as transportation, availability of health care providers would be reduced.
The implication of the study:
Thus it can be concluded that telemedicine is widely used in a majority of the countries as
a tool to increase the accessibility to the health care services by eliminating proximity from the
care setting. Telemedicine improves the access to information, provision of the care not
previously delivered, improved professional education, quality control to the screening program
and reduced the health care cost. However, accumulated evidence highlighted that e-health
literacy and confidentiality prevailed as a major barrier to successfully implementing
telemedicine. Although telemedicine shows promise in its ability to increase access and
efficiency, further studies need to explore the role of telemedicine in improving the accessibility
of the health care services. In order to conduct successful research for contributing a high piece
of evidence in the literature, both primary and secondary research would be undertaken.
Successful completion of the research would help to minimize the mortality and morbidity are in
UAE as well as medical errors in the health care setting.

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Time line:
Task And Time (1st
month
to 3rd
month
s)
(4th
mont
h to
9th
mont
h)
week
(10th
mont
h -
16th
mont
h )
(17 th
mont
h to
20th
mont
h)
( 21st
24th
mont
h )
(25th
-28
mont
h)
(29
th
mo
nth
to
31st
mo
nth
)
32nd
mont
h to
34th
mont
h )
35th
mon
th
36th
mon
th
Background 
Literature Review 
Methodology of
Research

Design of Data
Collection and
Methods

Data Collection 
Data Analysis and 

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Presentation
Conclusion and
Recommendations

Proof- Reading 
Sending First Draft
to Supervisor

Printing, Binding
and Submission


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References:
Alaboudi, A. A., ATKINS, A., & Sharp, B. (2015). A Holistic Framework for Assisting
Decision Makers of Healthcare Facilities to Assess Telemedicine Applications in
Saudi Arabia.
Alaboudi, A., Atkins, A., Sharp, B., Alzahrani, M., Balkhair, A., & Sunbul, T. (2016,
November). Perceptions and attitudes of clinical staff towards telemedicine
acceptance in Saudi Arabia. In Computer Systems and Applications (AICCSA),
2016 IEEE/ACS 13th International Conference of (pp. 1-8). IEEE.
Alaboudi, A., Atkins, A., Sharp, B., Balkhair, A., Alzahrani, M., & Sunbul, T. (2016).
Barriers and challenges in adopting Saudi telemedicine network: The perceptions
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Alassafi, M. O., Alharthi, A., Walters, R. J., & Wills, G. B. (2016, October). Security risk
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AlBar, A. M., & Hoque, M. R. (2018). Patient Acceptance of e-Health Services in Saudi
Arabia: An Integrative Perspective. Telemedicine and e-Health.

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Alharbi, F., Atkins, A., Stanier, C., & Al-Buti, H. A. (2016). Strategic value of cloud
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2015, 6.

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Ghani, M. K. A., Jaber, M. M., & Suryana, N. (2015). Barriers faces telemedicine
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