Table 1

Perceived telehealth benefits and limitations

Dimension

Perceived Benefits (Frequency)*

Perceived Limitations (Frequency)*

Clinical/Patient care

Access to specialised services (5 md, 9 hm)

Potential to save costs for patients (3 md, 4 hm)

Facilitates management of transfers (4 md)

Allows distant follow-up that improves continuity of care (3 md)

Improves information circulation (3 md)

Telehealth will never replace on site physician (6 md, 1 hm)

Professional

Access to a second opinion (10 md, 2 hm)

Facilitates communication with peers (7 md, 3 hm)

Diminishes the feeling of isolation (3 md, 2 hm)

Anticipated changes in the definition of tasks and responsibilities (2 md, 2 hm)

Educational

Knowledge development and update (7 md, 2 hm)

Increases access to CME (4 md, 4 hm)

Multi-disciplinary/multi-centered exchanges (3 md)

Teleeducation cannot substitute for all CME activities (2 md, 1 hm)

Organisational/Systemic

Supports the hospital as a regional reference centre (6 md, 5 hm)

Ensures availability of services (4 md, 3 hm) Saves time and money for meetings (4 md, 3 hm)

Potential to save costs for health system (3 md, 4 hm)

Better organisation of on-call duties (4 md)

Fear of replacing regional specialists (3 md, 2 hm)

Heavy logistics needed in the two sites (2 md, 2 hm)

Lack of commitment from the organisation (2 md, 1 hm)

* Number of physicians (md) and hospital managers (hm) who mentioned the item.

Gagnon et al. Implementation Science 2006 1:18   doi:10.1186/1748-5908-1-18