Investigating technology implementation in a neurosurgical teleconsultation program: a case study in Hong Kong

Developments of telemedicine have proliferated in recent years. While healthcare organizations and individual professionals have become increasingly interested in and knowledgeable about telemedicine, its ultimate success as a viable alternative service delivery or collaboration mode requires adequate addressing of crucial issues pertaining to technological and organizational concerns. This study examined the technology implementation that has taken place in a Hong Kong-based neurosurgical teleconsultation program. Using a fairly comprehensive stage-model framework, the study analyzed the major organizational and social change activities experienced or undertaken by the host clinical department, together with key factors and their principal stakeholders. The findings of the study suggest several implications for telemedicine management and research, and these are discussed as well.