A QUALITATIVE REVIEW OF USER PERSPECTIVES AND EXPERIENCES ON EHEALTH DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN BANGLADESH

Md Ali Ashraf and *Noushin Laila Ansari

ABSTRACT

The current pandemic caused by COVID-19 has significantly increased the number of users of eHealth service, as eHealth services minimize the risk of spreading the disease. While in the pre-pandemic era, studies regarding eHealth or telemedicine in Bangladesh focused mostly on application of such services in remote locations. This paper, in contrast, focuses on investigating the evolution of such services in Bangladesh and the perspectives of its users in an urban setting. Rather than describing all the eHealth services available in the country, users of such services were interviewed and their responses were analyzed and reported in this paper in an attempt to understand their perspective and experiences. The enquiry revealed that although people mostly understood the concept of eHealth and users of eHealth generally had a positive view towards it, often they were unaware of the availability of such services. It was because of the ongoing pandemic for which prospective patients actively looked for alternatives to going to the hospital or doctor’s chamber. While the participants did not mention any trust issues regarding the doctor, they were in general plagued by network connectivity issue and uncertainty of the wait time.

Keywords: eHealth, Telemedicine, Pandemic, COVID-19, Bangladesh.