摘要：Background. Among indigenous populations in remote locations who are at increased risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes, telemedicine has the potential to improve access to health care services and thus may reduce adverse health outcomes. Yet few studies are available on how best to use telemedicine technology in reducing ethnic and racial health care disparities.Objective. We examined perspectives of patients and providers in 2 indigenous populations in Alaska and Hawai’i about the use of telemedicine in primary care chronic disease management.Design. Six focus groups with patients and providers at 2 sites (3 in Alaska and 3 in Hawai’i).Results. Three broad themes were common to both sites: (a) benefits and barriers of using telemedicine; (b) building patientprovider relationships; and (c) elements of an acceptable telemedicine primary care encounter. Two key elements were endorsed by both patients and providers as important for an effective telemedicine encounter: (a) the initial patientprovider interaction should be face-to-face; and (b) patients must see the same provider on follow-up visits.Conclusion. The use of telemedicine in chronic disease management has potential to improve patient care in remote indigenous populations and may supplement patientprovider relationships. Keywords: Alaska; Indians, North America; focus groups; technology use; chronic disease treatment; patient perspective; provider perspective(Published: 5 August 2013)This paper is part of Supplement 1, 2013, ICCH15 Proceedings. More papers from this Supplement can be found here.Citation: Int J Circumpolar Health 2013, 72: 21401 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/ijch.v72i0.21401
