Bridging the digital health gap: telemedicine readiness, confidence, and training needs among health profession students in the United Arab Emirates

Telemedicine has expanded since the COVID-19 pandemic, underscoring the need to equip future healthcare workers with digital health competencies. This cross-sectional study at Gulf Medical University, Ajman, UAE, evaluated telemedicine readiness among 1000 health profession students across nine academic programs (response rate 76.9%). Only 14.9% reported familiarity with telemedicine and 19.8% felt confident in its use, while 42.5% reported no familiarity and 33.5% lacked confidence. Although 74% engaged in self-directed learning, only 25% had received formal telemedicine education. Formally trained students were significantly more likely to pursue self-training (p=0.0125) and demonstrated higher confidence (p<0.001). In multivariable ordinal regression, self-directed training [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 5.93, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.10-11.33] and formal education (aOR 3.26, 95% CI 1.78-5.97) independently predicted higher familiarity and confidence, whereas program affiliation did not. Clinical-year students reported lower confidence than pre-clinical peers (aOR 0.57, 95% CI 0.33-0.97). Formal education was the sole independent predictor of believing telemedicine would improve clinical skills (aOR 2.64, 95% CI 1.30-5.36). Most students (70.2%) supported curriculum integration. Readiness gaps are driven by training exposure rather than program affiliation, highlighting the need for a structured, longitudinal, university-wide telemedicine curriculum.