The administrative burden on physicians and technicians of organising internationaltelemedicine conferences: The utility of a shared program management system in an international telemedicine network (Preprint)
Authors: Kudo Kuriko , Kudo Tatsuro , Ueda Shintaro , Antoku Yasuaki , Tomimatsu Shunta , Shiaw-Hooi Ho , Hisada Yukiko , Shimizu Shuji , Moriyama Tomohiko 
Published: March 2022

BACKGROUND

The use of international telemedicine conferences for doctor-to-doctor education has expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure health and safety. Previous studies have shown that administrative tasks are an obstacle to promoting international telemedicine conferences but have not clarified what kind of system is needed to alleviate this burden.　The Asia-Pacific Advanced Network Medical Working Group (APAN-MWG) is an international telemedicine network that had connected 1,171 medical institutions and 3,653 members as of 21 July 2021. APAN-MWG has supported international telemedicine conferences since 2005, and a program management system was implemented in 2014.

OBJECTIVE

The present study clarifies the content of the organisers' tasks and evaluates the APAN-MWG management system through a survey of conference program organisers.

METHODS

We developed a system named med-hok for managing conference programs, international medical institutions and members. We investigated all event programs planned using med-hok by program organisers from 3 June 2015 to 21 July 2021. The target data were 64 conference programs in 12 different series hosted by 13 program organisers. The effectiveness of med-hok was evaluated using a four-point Likert scale (very good, good, poor, and very poor). The User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) was used to assess the user experience.

RESULTS

The survey response rate of the program organisers, who hosted 11 different program series in 7 Asian countries, was 92% (12/13). The administrative tasks for managing programs were primarily handled by physicians (67%, 8/12) followed by technicians (17%, 2/12). The average program scope encompassed 7 countries, 10 institutions and 44 members. The largest program comprised 194 members from 49 institutions in 25 countries and was managed by physicians and a technician. The majority of program organisers (8/12, 67%) indicated that verifying member information was the most burdensome aspect of organising the teleconferences. Over 90% of respondents positively evaluated med-hok in the following areas: “Confirmation of institution information”, “Confirmation of member information”, “Confirmation of technical information”, “Maintaining the latest status of the program”, “Announcing and publicising the event”, and “Formatting and correcting misspellings”. The user experience was rated positively in all aspects (attractiveness, 1.47; practical quality, 1.50; and hedonic quality, 0.95).

CONCLUSIONS

Unlike large academic conferences, many of the tasks of organising casual international telemedicine conferences are handled by physicians and technicians with no operating funds or staff. It was found that the proposed system helps program organisers in managing participants and publishing the latest information. It is recommended that international telemedicine networks implement an administrative support system to conduct efficient program operations.