• Sara Shouman, Tamer Emara, Heba Gamal Saber, and Mohamed Farouk Allam.
• Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
• Curr Med Res Opin. 2022 Jun 1; 38 (6): 993-998.

BackgroundTelehealth is delivering health care services remotely from healthcare facilities using telecommunications and virtual technology. Egypt is aiming to reach Universal Health Coverage; this increases the demand for telehealth in routine health services. Telehealth helps in increasing access to areas with no available medical services as patients can be monitored remotely.ObjectiveTo measure the awareness of telehealth among attendees of primary health care units and their acceptance of applying telehealth.MethodologyThis was a cross-sectional study among attendees of primary health units. Ethical issues were considered.ResultsA sample size was calculated to be 162 and 170 valid Arabic interview questionnaires were filled by attendees. The awareness percentage of telehealth among attendees was 64.7% while the willingness to implement telehealth was 78%. Both awareness and willingness were significantly associated with age groups, residence, socioeconomic status, and presence of computer with internet access. Age, residence, and possession of a PC were the only adjusted predictive factors for knowledge about telehealth among patients in the multivariable analysis.ConclusionLarge percentages of attendees to primary health care centers are aware of telehealth and are willing to implement it. The major cause of refusal to implement telehealth was ignorance of using telecommunication devices and the desire to be in close contact with the physicians.

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