INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN SUPPORT TO PRE-HOSPITAL HEALTHCARE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35120/medisij020215kKeywords:
General Practitioners, Pre-hospital healthcare, Information-communication technologies, Artificial IntelligenceAbstract
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic many countries in line with the imposed restrictive and isolation measures had recommended and issued directives regarding significant changes into pre-hospital healthcare. General practitioners were directed to limit face-to face consultations and to shift into remote visits implementing into their daily practice the Information-Communications technologies capabilities. Telephone triage and telemedicine consultations became routine to the majority of the general practitioners and the specialists providing consultations and treatment into the pre-hospital domain of the medical support to the population. These changes were forced by the imperative of restricting the SARS-CoV-2 spread. Decreasing the density of the patients into the pre-hospital healthcare facilities was effectively mitigating the risk of becoming infected. These imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic changes into the pre-hospital healthcare led to significant increase into the medical specialists awareness about the capabilities of the novel Information-Communication technologies and the Artificial Intelligence for supporting the diagnostic process.
The aim of this study is to assess the pre-hospital medical specialists knowledge and acceptance of the capabilities of the Information-Communication technologies and the Artificial Intelligence into primary medical support.
Materials and Methods A 5-question-Likert-scale survey was conducted at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic (December2022 - February 2023) among the general practitioners and pre-hospital medical specialist in Plovdiv region. Eighty questionnaires were distributed and 57 of the medics responded. Questions were related both to the capabilities of telemedicine and the Artificial Intelligence.
Results and Discussion Majority of the medical specialists responded prevalently positive with regards to their knowledge about the possibilities of the telemedicine and Information-Communication technologies to be implemented into their practice. Less percentage of the medical specialist were responding with great degree of acceptance regarding the capacities of the Artificial Intelligence to provide risk-prediction and diagnostic and preventive programs.
As conclusion the authors would like to note that, based on the results of the performed survey, Information-Communication technologies and Artificial Intelligence are becoming more recognizable as supportive and valuable tools for pre-hospital medical specialists.
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