Tripartite Data Analysis for Optimizing Telemedicine Operations: Evidence from Guizhou Province in China

Jinna Yu, Tingting Zhang, Zhen Liu, Assem Abu Hatab and Jing Lan
Additional contact information
Jinna Yu: Business School, Guizhou Minzu University, Guiyang 550025, China
Tingting Zhang: School of Economics and Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Zhen Liu: School of Business, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China
Assem Abu Hatab: Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7013, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
Jing Lan: College of Public Administration, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 1, 1-23

Abstract: Telemedicine is an innovative approach that helps alleviate the health disparity in developing countries and improve health service accessibility, affordability, and quality. Few studies have focused on the social and organizational issues involved in telemedicine, despite in-depth studies of and significant improvements in these technologies. This paper used evolutionary game theory to analyze behavioral strategies and their dynamic evolution in the implementation and operation of telemedicine. Further, numerical simulation was carried out to develop management strategies for promoting telemedicine as a new way of delivering health services. The results showed that: (1) When the benefits are greater than the costs, the higher medical institutions (HMIs), primary medical institutions (PMIs), and patients positively promote telemedicine with benign interactions; (2) when the costs are greater than the benefits, the stability strategy of HMIs, PMIs, and patients is, respectively, ‘no efforts’, ‘no efforts’, and ‘non-acceptance’; and (3) promotion of telemedicine is influenced by the initial probability of the ‘HMI efforts’, ‘PMI efforts’, and ‘patients’ acceptance’ strategy chosen by the three stakeholders, telemedicine costs, and the reimbursement ratio of such costs. Based on theoretical analysis, in order to verify the theoretical model, this paper introduces the case study of a telemedicine system integrated with health resources at provincial, municipal, county, and township level in Guizhou. The findings of the case study were consistent with the theoretical analysis. Therefore, the central Chinese government and local governments should pay attention to the running cost of MIs and provide financial support when the costs are greater than the benefits. At the same time, the government should raise awareness of telemedicine and increase participation by all three stakeholders. Lastly, in order to promote telemedicine effectively, it is recommended that telemedicine services are incorporated within the scope of medical insurance and the optimal reimbursement ratio is used.

Keywords: telemedicine; tripartite data analysis; optimizing telemedicine operations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/1/375/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/1/375/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:1:p:375-:d:305773

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().