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2009 ATA mid year meeting
Telemedicine and e-Health
The Essence of Telehealth Readiness in Rural Communities: An Organizational Perspective

To cite this article:
Penny Jennett, Andora Jackson, Kendall Ho, Theresa Healy, Arminee Kazanjian, Robert Woollard, Susan Haydt, Joanna Bates. Telemedicine and e-Health. April 2005, 11(2): 137-145. doi:10.1089/tmj.2005.11.137.

Published in Volume: 11 Issue 2: April 20, 2005

Full Text: • PDF for printing (67.3 KB) • PDF w/ links (71.7 KB)


Dr. Penny Jennett, Ph.D.
Health Telematics Unit (HTU), University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Andora Jackson, M.Sc.
Health Telematics Unit (HTU), University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Kendall Ho, M.D.
Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
Theresa Healy, Ph.D.
B.C. Centre of Excellence for Women's Health, University of Northern B.C., Prince George, B.C., Canada.
Arminee Kazanjian, Dr. Soc.
Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
Robert Woollard, M.D.
Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
Susan Haydt, M.A.
Health Telematics Unit (HTU), University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Joanna Bates, M.D.C.M.
Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

This paper examines telehealth readiness from an organizational perspective and explores the essence of telehealth readiness among four domains, namely, patients, practitioners, the public, and organizations in rural Canadian communities. Because readiness is a necessary requirement for the successful implementation of an innovation, it is important to identify and ensure core factors of readiness before costly investments are made. The findings presented here derive from a qualitative phenomenological research approach involving semistructured telephone interviews with four key informants (respondents). The data identified four categories of readiness in an organizational setting: core readiness, engagement, structural readiness, and nonreadiness. Understanding organizational readiness within rural and remote communities is an important step for the successful implementation of telehealth services into existing systems of health care.

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