title: Why do telemedicine systems fail to normalize as stable models of service delivery?
abstract: Two groups independently carried out qualitative studies of the development, implementation and evaluation of telehealth systems and services in the UK. The data collected (in more than 600 discrete data collection episodes) included semistructured interviews, observations and documents. We conducted a conjoint reanalysis of the data. The objective was to identify the conditions which dispose a telehealth service to be successful or to fail. There appear to be four conditions necessary for a telemedicine system to stabilize and then normalize as a means of service delivery. When one or more is absent, failure can be expected. These conditions are often overlooked by local proponents of telemedicine, who seem to rely on demonstrations that the equipment works as the primary criterion of success.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Services Research, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. c.r.may@ncl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: May
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: MacFarlane
authors.forename: Tracy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Frances
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mair
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wallace
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D015397:Program Evaluation; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006113:United Kingdom