title: Teleconsultations by primary care physicians of Belo Horizonte: challenges in the diffusion of innovation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Telemedicine is the provision of health services by professionals who use information and communications technology in the exchange of information for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases. Since 2004, the Municipal Department of Health of Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil, has been implementing telehealth initiatives with the goal of increasing the ability of primary care providers to resolve problems by providing them with clinical support and with continuing education using information and communications technologies. This study characterized the primary care physicians who used the Belo Horizonte telehealth store-and-forward teleconsultation.
  
  
  METHODS
  A descriptive study was conducted of the frequency of use of store-and-forward teleconsultation and characteristics of physician users.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We analyzed 737 store-and-forward teleconsultations in the period 2006-2010. The number of store-and-forward teleconsultations grew from 2006 to 2009, and 85 physicians used the tool. The physician users were predominantly women, specialists in family and community medicine, those employed under a stable contract, and older and with more time in the profession and in public service. The adoption rate was 6.0%, 4.8%, and 1.2% in 2008, 2009, and 2010, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Context variables and individual variables may be influencing the adoption of store-and-forward teleconsultation in Belo Horizonte. It would be useful to further study the factors that constitute barriers to using teleconsultations and to improve the training in use of the tool.
authors.affiliation: Telehealth Center of the Municipal Department of Health, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. sandramitraud@bol.com.br
authors.forename: Sandra Silva Mitraud
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Ruas
authors.forename: Ada Ávila
authors.initials: AÁ
authors.lastname: Assunção
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001938:Brazil; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019114:Remote Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D055815:Young Adult