Methods of Further Education
and Usage of Telemedicine
by Physicians in the West Bank
Survey Summary
• In 2012/2013 medipalestine used a questionnaire to collect data from 393 physicians practicing in the West Bank
• those 393 were randomly chosen from 6800 physicians registered with the Palestinian Med. Assoc.
• in terms of gender differences, female physicians are intentionally overrepresented in the survey
• besides gender differences, the survey focuses on differences between different levels of education (GP or specialist) and different age groups
• analysing distinctive governorates resulted in no significant regional differences
• based on the results of this survey, medipalestine is evaluating future projects related to further education, especially telemedicine (e.g. virtual training, bringing together international national expertise in
cancer care, etc.)
Download the survey in PDF
medipalestine_survey.pdf
The factual composition of physicians questioned
Questions on Further Education
Noteworthy differences regarding further education
Age (<40 vs. >40 y/o):
• Younger physicians use more books compared to older physicians, who rather use magazines and conferences as their main method of further education.
• Older physicians attend significantly more conferences, especially more international ones, than younger physicians, who rather attend national conferences.
• Younger physicians spend significantly less money on further education than older ones but all would be willing to spend more money, especially the younger ones.
• Young physicians tend to pursue more intensively further education related to the field of surgical procedures than older ones.
Gender (female vs. male):
• Female physicians tend to use more books and less internet as a main method of further education than their male counterparts.
• There is no gender difference in the number of visits to conferences, but males tend to visit international ones more often than females.
• Despite the fact that women are willing to spend as much on further education as men, men are still spending significantly more.
• Female doctors tend to pursue more intensively further education related to the field of diagnostics than male doctors.
Education (GP vs. specialist):
• GPs use mainly books, whereas specialists read significantly more magazines and rather attend conferences for further education purposes.
• Specialists attend more international conferences than GPs. Furthermore, they significantly attend more conferences in total than GPs.
• Specialists also spend significantly more money on further education than GPs, whereas both groups would be willing to spend more.
• GPs are significantly more focused on the field of diagnostics than specialists are.
Questions on Internet and the Telemedicine Method
Noteworthy differences regarding use of internet and the telemedicine method
Age (<40 vs. >40 y/o):
• Younger physicians tend to you use the internet more often for further education on a daily basis than older ones.
• Young doctors are significantly less familiar with the telemedicine method than older ones. Once familiar with it, younger doctors still use it less often.
• Significantly fewer young physicians have contact with the medical community for second opinion purposes, especially with the international one.
Gender (female vs. male):
• Significantly fewer female doctors are familiar with or use the telemedicine method. Once in use, there is no significant difference in the frequency of use.
• More male doctors have contact with the medical community for second opinion purposes. The differences here can be explained by the international contacts.
Education (GP vs. specialist):
• Compared to specialists, fewer GPs are familiar with the telemedicine method. Once familiar with it, there is no significant difference in the frequency of use.
• Specialists have significantly more contact with the medical community for second opinion purposes, both national and international.
• Once in use, there is no difference in the frequency of using the second opinion method.
medipalestine thanks all doctors who participated in this survey for their valuable contribution.
Authors: Hadeel Abu Tair, M.D., Majed Nassar, M.D., Sona Arouri, Ruba Atallah, Andy Clark, Luca Eusebio, Marcel Karcher, Maysoon Iraki, M.D.