E-Health Literacy in Physiotherapist of Gujarat: A Survey

In Recent years, digitalization has taken over many industries including healthcare professions worldwide, and India is no exception. According to 'National Digital Health Mission (NDHM)' -Making India a Digital Health Nation Enabling Digital Healthcare for all Strategy Overview of JULY-2020 significant technical shift will occur in healthcare system in India and so there is need of the study to investigate whether healthcare providers and seekers are ready for this change or not. There are limited researches available in literature in this area hence need of study arises. The aim of present study is to investigate the level of E-health literacy in Physiotherapist practising in India. MATERIALS & METHODS: Total 174 registered physiotherapist (123 females, 55 males) practicing in Gujarat participated in this survey. E-health literacy scale (Eheals) is a valid and reliable tool, it’s a self-administered questionary which has 5 points from which best suitable option will be chose by responder from strongly agree/very useful to strongly disagree. 90% of physiotherapist believed that the internet is a useful and important tool in making decisions related to healthcare and for accessing health-related information. Regardless of the high percentage regarding the usefulness and importance of the internet, the ability and skills of finding and utilizing health care resources electronically was noted moderate to low. CONCLUSION: E-health literacy was found moderate to low on Physiotherapist practicing in India. There are countless possibilities of further studies in this area with larger population size and various other components of E-health literacy. Keywords: E-Health, Digitalization in healthcare, Physiotherapist