Adoption of Telemedicine in Depression Care: A New Era of Mental Health in Indonesia

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of depression cases. However, only 9% of depression patients in Indonesia receive appropriate treatment. The rapid advancement of technology highlights the potential for telemedicine to close this gap. Unfortunately, the adoption of telemedicine in Indonesia remains challenging, with a small amount of the population having used this technology.

Several factors impact the adoption of telemedicine among its users. The adoption of this technology, including by healthcare professionals, will depend on these factors. To understand these factors, the adoption of telemedicine for depression care among healthcare professionals in Indonesia is explored in this study.

The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) is employed as the theoretical foundation. Performance expectancy and effort expectancy are used to find the answer to the main research question. Performance expectancy refers to the degree to which one expects a system to help them raise their job performance, while effort expectancy refers to the degree to which a system is easy to use. Eleven interviewees were interviewed for this research, of whom eight are psychologists, two are psychiatrists, and one is an academic.

In terms of performance expectancy, there are nine key factors that could contribute to the adoption of telemedicine for depression care. In terms of effort expectancy, it was found that five key factors influence healthcare professionals’ perceived ease of use towards telemedicine. As a result, it was found through deeper analysis that education and technology are two additional contributors to the UTAUT framework in telemedicine for depression care. Additionally, the findings show that current regulations are still inadequate to provide comprehensive rules related to telemedicine practices in Indonesia.

This research has several limitations. It focuses exclusively on depression care in Indonesia as a country and not specific to certain locations. Bias can arise from the small number of interviewees in this research. Future research should consider the location, gender, age, and experience of interviewees to provide more comprehensive results. Another research can be employed to ensure the validity and generalization of the suggested framework in similar cases.

The implications of this research are intended for policymakers, academic institutions, and technology providers. To ensure the proper functioning of telemedicine, policymakers supported by academic institutions should incorporate telemedicine courses into the curriculum and establish formal regulations of telemedicine in the country. For technology providers, they must ensure that telemedicine functionalities meet the needs of healthcare professionals in order for them to perform their duties.