Developing a telehealth readiness assessment framework and tool for least developed countries: A case of Yemen

Healthcare in Least Developed Countries is poor. Telehealth has the potential to improve healthcare. Assessing the readiness is important for a successful adoption of Telehealth. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to develop a framework to assess the readiness of health organizations in least developed countries in regard to the adoption of Telehealth. Due to the difficulty to study all countries Yemen has been chosen as a case study in this study. Therefore, Yemen Telehealth Readiness Assessment Framework (YTRAF) has been developed to assess the readiness. Meanwhile, Yemen Telehealth Readiness Assessment Tool (YTRAT) has been developed for collecting data. YTRAF and YTRAT have been used to assess the readiness of the Ministry of Public Health in regard to adoption of Telehealth in Yemeni health system. A qualitative approach including interview, focus group and observation have been used. The outcomes of the interviews revealed that the Ministry of Public Health is in need for considerable efforts to raise the level of its readiness in several areas to be ready for successful adoption of Telehealth. Furthermore, the interviewees have released the potential of Telehealth to improve the current healthcare in rural areas in Yemen and they have accepted to use Telehealth to do their duties.