Feasibility study of Providing Complementary Medicine Services through Telemedicine: A Case Study from Iran.

Complementary medicine is the type of health care provided outside the usual rules. On the other hand, telemedicine provides medical services using electronic and communication processes. The present study investigates the possibility of using telemedicine in Hakim Emadeddin Shirazi Complementary Medicine Clinic.

This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in February 2019. The study population included manager and physicians of the clinic and patients referring to the clinic. Manager and physicians were selected by census method and patients were selected by random sampling. Based on Cochran formula, a sample size of 400 patients was considered. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire whose validity and reliability was measured and analyzed by SPSS software.

Twelve physicians (66.7 percent) were relatively familiar with telemedicine; however, only 14.9 percent of patients were relatively familiar with telemedicine. Despite more familiarity with physicians, patients were more likely to use the technology.

In spite of an upward trend in the popularity of both telemedicine and complementary medicine and due to the difficulty of communicating between different departments of the clinic and between the clinic and patients, the lack of support for top clinical management and the lack of knowledge of physicians and patients with telemedicine It does not seem possible to use telemedicine in Hakim Emadeddin Shirazi Traditional Medicine Clinic.