Introduction. eHealth applications are numerous: electronic health records, evidence-based practice, delivering care from a distance, patient self-care, epidemiological research, healthcare management activities etc. However, the effective provision of healthcare as appropriate to the eHealth environment, needs not only suitable buildings and modern medical equipment, it needs adequately trained healthcare staff.
The aim of this study is to assess the readiness and the willingness of the Bulgarian physicians to work in eHealth environment and to give reason for their still actual necessity of education in biomedical and health informatics.
Material and methods. An enquiry was carried out in 2013 among the physicians in Bulgaria aiming at the assessment of their knowledge of using computers in their daily medical practice, their attitude to eHealth and their readiness to work in eHealth environment.
Results. The results of the study showed the positive attitude of the Bulgarian physicians to information technologies (97%) and their recognized need of using computers in medicine (91.9%). Although 77.49% declared that they have the necessary skills and knowledge to use computers, the study proved that this is just a basic computer literacy (word-processing and Internet). About half of the respondents recognize the need of additional education: databases and medical information systems (37.64%), graphical software (40.59%), statistical software (47.98%), specialized medical software (48.34%). The majority of the participants (86%) wish to personally use computers in their daily medical practice, yet only 38.4% of them wish to enter patient data in a computer by themselves. In fact, only 17.7% are aware of the principles of eHealth.
Conclusions. Тhe adequate education in biomedical and health informatics is one of the most important prerequisites for the successful implementation of eHealth in Bulgaria.
Keywords: Biomedical and health Informatics, eHealth, computer literacy, ICT
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