Awareness and attitudes to telemedicine among doctors and patients in India.

We collected information about awareness and attitudes to telemedicine from 143 doctors at 14 different hospitals in India, and from 121 patients who had come to New Delhi for treatment from other parts of India. Most doctors felt that telemedicine was important and their opinions were similar in all age groups. Only three of the 14 hospitals had not implemented telemedicine. A total of 86 doctors had used telemedicine. One hundred of the 121 patients were not aware of telemedicine. However, when the concept was explained, most patients had a positive attitude towards telemedicine. The majority of patients who had previously used telemedicine (n = 7) found it satisfactory. It is important that proper hospital training programmes should be organized for all doctors, which will assist in future utilization of telemedicine. Further awareness programmes are also required for patients.