Shashthosheba: Dissecting Perception of Bangladeshi People towards Telemedicine Apps through the Lens of Features of the Apps

Bangladesh, a developing country with a large and dense population, has recently seen significant economic as well as technological developments. The growth of technology has resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of smartphone users in Bangladesh, and as such, mobile apps have become an increasingly important part of peoples’ life, even encompassing healthcare services. However, the apps used in healthcare (telemedicine to be specific) in Bangladesh are yet to be studied from the perspective of their features as per the voices of the users as well as service providers. Therefore, in this study, we focus on the features of the telemedicine apps used in Bangladesh. First, we evaluated the present status of existing telemedicine apps in Bangladesh, as well as their benefits and draw-backs in the context of HCI. We analyzed publicly accessible reviews of several Bangladeshi telemedicine apps (N = 14) to evaluate the user impressions. Additionally, to ascertain the public opinion of these apps, we performed a survey in which the patients (N = 87) participated willingly. Our analysis of the collected opinions reveals what users experience, what they appreciate, and what they are concerned about when they use telemedicine apps. Additionally, our study demonstrates what users expect from telemedicine apps, independent of their past experience. Finally, we explore how to address the issues we discovered and how telemedicine may be used to effectively offer healthcare services throughout the country. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to analyze the perception of the people of Bangladesh towards telemedicine apps from the perspective of features of the apps.