Examining Supporting and Constraining Factors of Physicians’ Acceptance of Telemedical Online Consultations: A Survey Study

As healthcare demands exceed outpatient physicians’ capacities, telemedicine holds far-reaching potential for both physicians and patients. It is crucial to holistically analyze physicians’ acceptance of telemedical applications, such as online consultation. This study seeks to identify supporting and constraining factors that influence outpatient physicians’ acceptance of telemedicine. We develop a model based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). To empirically examine our research model, we conducted a survey among German physicians (n = 127) in 2018–2019. We used the partial least squares (PLS) modeling approach to test our model, including a mediation analysis. The results indicate that performance expectancy (β = .397, P < .001), effort expectancy (β = .134, P = .03), and social influence (β = .337, P < .001) strongly impact on the intention to conduct online consultations and explain 55% of its variance. Structural conditions regarding data security comprise a key antecedent, associating with performance expectancy (β = .193, P < .001) and effort expectancy (β = .295, P < .001). Regarding potential barriers to usage intentions, we find that IT anxiety predicts performance (β=–.342, P < .001) and effort expectancy (β=–.364, P < .001), while performance expectancy fully mediates (βdirect = .022, P = .71; βindirect=-.138, P < .001) the direct relationship between IT anxiety and the intention to use telemedical applications. This research provides explanations for physicians’ behavioral intention to use online consultation, underlining UTAUT’s applicability in healthcare contexts. Performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence are the main drivers of the intention to use online consultations. Further, we identify IT anxiety and the importance of data security as significant antecedents that should be addressed by practitioners (e.g., in telemedical implementation projects) and by further research.