MIAMI – Telemedicine holds great promise to address a wide range of health issues in Latin America. Yet its use hasn’t reached broad national and regional levels.
Research from Florida International University’s College of Business (FIU Business) indicates that increased adoption of telemedicine in Latin America will further expand and boost efficiency in healthcare, leading to improved health and potential cost efficiency. However, without strong technical knowledge, leadership within healthcare organizations and increased cooperation within organizations around key health issues, efforts to implement telemedicine could remain scattered.
“It will open possibilities for cost savings when it is viewed from a health system perspective and not as a collage of stand-alone projects aligned to the sometimes-conflicting interests of governments, donors, and private organizations,” said Cynthia LeRouge, associate professor of information systems and business analytics at FIU Business, who conducted the research.
Telemedicine refers to caring for patients remotely, often through a secure video connection, when the provider and patient are not physically present with each other. The study, published in the February 2019 issue of Health Affairs, profiled current levels of telemedicine use among hospitals in nine Latin American countries – Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay. Among the key findings are that telemedicine adoption in public hospitals was 30 percent higher than in private facilities, suggesting the lack of a consensus on telemedicine systems within the healthcare sector in Latin America. Results also indicate that legislation alone may not promote adoption; however, additional legislation is necessary to protect valued patient confidentiality and privacy in telemedicine.
“It is very difficult to maximize the potential impact of telemedicine in any country without comprehensive approaches to addressing interrelated areas of concern including regulatory, financial, technological, and human factors,” LeRouge said.
Researchers analyzed data from the 2017 HospiScope database of Latin American hospitals and the 2015 World Health Organization (WHO) Global Survey on eHealth. They found that the use of telemedicine ranged from 26 percent of hospitals in Colombia to 65 percent in Chile.
Of the countries studied, Chile has the highest rate of telemedicine adoption by hospitals and coverage of medical specialties. It was one of the first countries that transitioned from international funding to government funding for telemedicine services. In 2004 its Ministry of Health implemented a $6 million, seven-year program to accelerate health IT infrastructure nationwide.
“Technical knowledge and leadership must accompany access to technology for telemedicine’s long-term adoption,” said LeRouge. “Interestingly, while results showed that hospitals with IT leadership were more likely to adopt telemedicine, the size of IT staffs was not a significant predictor of telemedicine use.”
The paper was co-authored by LeRouge with FIU colleagues Manjul Gupta, assistant professor of information systems and business analytics; and Alejandro Arrieta, assistant professor of health policy and management at FIU’s Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work; as well as Guillaume Corpart, CEO of Miami-based Global Health Intelligence.
A copy of the research paper is available upon request.
About FIU Business:
Florida International University’s College of Business, plays pivotal role in the development of global business leaders. FIU Business has unique expertise in international business, real estate data analytics, entrepreneurship, and healthcare management. For more information about FIU Business, visit http://business.fiu.edu.
About Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work:
Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work inspires groundbreaking discoveries through interdisciplinary education in public health, dietetics and nutrition, social work and disaster preparedness from within a rigorous academic environment at Florida International University (FIU). The college’s three fully accredited disciplines blend course work, research and practice so students develop the skills they need to become future leaders. With an expansive network of more than 8,500 alumni, Stempel College is strengthening communities and influencing policy that promotes healthy lives for all—especially the most underserved. For more information, please visit Stempel.fiu.edu.
About Global Health Intelligence (GHI)
Global Health Intelligence created HospiScope, the world’s largest hospital demographics database focused on Latin America, with data on 8 out of every 10 hospitals in the region across 14 countries. HospiScope updates more than 2 million hospital data points each year, helping clients with custom research, data on the medical devices market, competitive profiling for the LatAm healthcare industry, marketing sizing, segmentation and pricing/cost analyses.
About FIU:
Florida International University, a public university located in Miami, has a passion for student success and community solutions. The university is classified by Carnegie as “R1.” FIU is among the top 100 public universities in U.S. News and World Report’s 2019 Best Colleges and 18 academic programs are individually ranked. FIU was recently ranked as the second best performing university in Florida and graduates are among the highest-paid in the state. FIU has multiple state-of-the-art research facilities including the Wall of Wind Research and Testing Facility and FIU’s Medina Aquarius Program. FIU has awarded more than 330,000 degrees since 1972 and enrolls more than 57,000 students in two campuses and centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, the Miami Beach Urban Studios, and sites in Qingdao and Tianjin, China. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA with more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit www.fiu.edu.
