Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology 
ISSN: 2576-8484 
Vol. 8, No. 6, 3140-3149 
2024 
Publisher: Learning Gate 
DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v8i6.2675 
© 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate 

© 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate 
* Correspondence:  sirayut.ph@up.ac.th 

 
 
 
 
 

An evaluation of Thais’ attitude toward Telepharmacy in community 
pharmacies: A cross-sectional survey study 

 
Ongart Maneemai1,2, Patchalee Jaroenpiyapat1, Pimlapus Wongwiwattana1, Sirayut Phatthanasobhon1,2* 
1Department of Pharmaceutical Care, School of Pharmaceutical Science, University of Phayao, Phayao, 56000, Thailand. 
2Pharmacoepidemiology, Social and Administrative Pharmacy (P-SAP) Research Unit, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 
University of Phayao, Phayao, 56000 Thailand; sirayut.ph@up.ac.th (S.P.). 

 

 
Abstract: To determine the Thais’ attitudes toward telepharmacy in community pharmacies service and 
explore the factor effected their attitudes. This cross-sectional survey study conducted in Thailand. The 
population was Thai citizens over the age of 18 years. Data was gathering via online questionnaire. 
Descriptive statistics were examined. Subgroup analysis was evaluated by t-test or one way ANOVA as 
appropriate. The factors affecting Thais’ attitudes regarding telepharmacy were tested with multiple 
regression analysis. Total of 391 respondents were analyzed. Overall mean score of attitudes on 

telepharmacy was 4.15  0.45. The highest rating was given to telepharmacy procedures (4.49  0.49). 

Females had higher opinion mean scores than males (4.18  0.44 vs. 4.08  0.48; p = 0.017) and 

healthcare people performed poorly opinions mean scores than the general population (4.09  0.44 vs. 

4.19  0.47, p = 0.026). The factors that influenced the opinion score were gender (p = 0.017), income (p 
= 0.036), and working or studying in the medical field (p = 0.011). Telepharmacy is a crucial service 
offered by community pharmacies. It facilitated clients' access to medications and pharmacists. Gender, 
income, and working or studies in the medical area influenced the Thais' opinion. 
Keywords: Drugstores, Pharmacy, Telemedicine, Telepharmacy, Thailand. 

 
1. Introduction  

Telepharmacy is a part of telehealth, which is the application of technology to the provision of 
health services. In general, telepharmacy is defined as the pharmaceutical care practices and related 
services to patients through telecommunications at a distance [1]. Telepharmacy services have been 
implemented in many countries and are available in both hospitals and community pharmacies. 

Numerous research studies demonstrated the benefit of telepharmacy to the healthcare system [2-12]. It 
enables patients to obtain their medications with more accessibility [7-10], convenience [7,9,11], and 
safety [2,4,12]. 

During the COVID-19 outbreak, the social distancing is needed. Thai authorities have enacted new 
legislation governing telepharmacy in 2020 [13]. This marked the commencement of telepharmacy 
service in Thailand. Telepharmacy is a new approach that Thai pharmacists are using to deliver 
pharmaceutical care, but it can assist alleviate on the healthcare system and enhance the drug dispensing 
safety. Consequently, telepharmacy has become more widespread in pharmaceutical care practices such 
as medication management, dispensing, patient counseling, and drug information [14-16]. 

In accordance with the Standards and Procedures for Telepharmacy of the Pharmacy Council of 
Thailand [13], telepharmacy is classified into three categories: (i) in–hospital services, (ii) in–
community pharmacies with the physician’s prescription, and (iii) in–community pharmacies without 
physician’s prescription. According to the types of service, telepharmacy activities can be different; 
however, there are particular activities that are fundamental practices such as: medication 
reconciliations, exploring drug-related problems, evaluating of the physician’s orders or prescriptions, 
drug dispensing, and delivery of medications to the patient’s residence. 



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In terms of patient satisfaction, telepharmacy helps alleviate patients' problems in obtaining their 
medications. Many people are uncomfortable to leaving their house in order to receive regular 
medication. However, due to technological advancements, pharmacists may also supervise patients 
without having to travel. [17] Especially in Thailand, the Thai Drugs Act permits community 
pharmacists to provide non-dangerous drugs without a prescription, therefore accessing drugs is much 
easier. Implementation of telepharmacy into community pharmacies has improved customer satisfaction 
due to its convenience [18].  

Since the Pharmacy Council of Thailand announced the telepharmacy standard, the study about the 
opinions toward telepharmacy in Thailand has been sparse. To our knowledge, three studies have been 
conducted: two of which were performed on the pharmacist population [19,20] and one of which was 
conducted on the public population [18]. All of them have two limitations that seem to be similar. First, 
all studies were carried out prior to the telepharmacy standard announcement. This indicates that there 
was no telepharmacy service available at the time of the studies. It may be possible that people's 
perceptions regarding telepharmacy will be shifted. Second, the qualitative research method was applied 
in all three studies. In-depth interviews were conducted in limited participants. Generalizability should 
be considered. Nowadays, telepharmacy services are now available in retail pharmacies as well as 
hospitals. Therefore, this current study has applied the concept of quantitative research to be able to 
gather data from a larger number of people. This study aimed to determine the Thais’ opinions toward 
telepharmacy in community pharmacies and explore the factor effected to the opinions. This enables 
community pharmacists to gain a better understanding of their clients' opinions toward telepharmacy 
and to apply the findings to improve telepharmacy services. 
 
2. Materials and Methods 
2.1. Study Design and Participants 

This study was a cross-sectional survey study conducted in Thailand. The population was Thai 
citizens over the age of 18 years old who accessed the questionnaire through social media platforms. A 
convenience sampling technique was employed. Sample size was calculated under Cochran’s formula 
[21]. According to maximum variability, the estimated proportion of the population (p) was assumed of 
0.5. The 95% confidence level gives us a Z value of 1.96. The calculated sample size (n) was 385.  

 
2.2. Research Instrument 

The research instrument was a Google Form–based online questionnaire. The questionnaire's 
content validity was evaluated by three experts: two community pharmacists with ten years of 
experience in community pharmacy and one lecturer at the Faculty of Pharmacy. The questions with a 
content validity index of greater than 0.8 were chosen [22]. Comments were used to develop wording 
improvements to provide a clearer and more intelligible final questionnaire. Reliability test was 
undertaken among thirty Thais. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to determine the reliability. 
Acceptance alpha value was more than 0.7 [23]. The questionnaire took approximately 20 minutes to 
complete. It consisted of two parts: (i) demographic data (e.g., gender, education, residency, income per 
month, telepharmacy experience, etc.) and (ii) opinions toward telepharmacy services in community 
pharmacies. The second part was a five-Likert scale questionnaire with 37 items. Rating scales ranged 
from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the final draft 
questionnaire was 0.905. 

 
2.3. Data Collection and Analysis 

Data was gathered using an online survey, which allowed the participants to complete the 
questionnaire independently. The questionnaire was posted on social media, including Facebook, 
Twitter, and Line. Data were collected between 25 February to 5 March 2022. The authors explored the 
questionnaire one by one for completeness and then extracted data from Google Forms into Microsoft 
Excel. The formal analysis was performed by statistical software. Descriptive statistics were examined. 
The results were presented as frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviations (SD). Subgroup 
analysis was evaluated by t-test or one way ANOVA as appropriate. The factors affecting Thais’ 



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Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology 
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Vol. 8, No. 6: 3140-3149, 2024 
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opinions regarding telepharmacy in community pharmacies were tested with multiple regression 
analysis using stepwise backward elimination method. The significant level was set at p < 0.05. 

 
2.4. Ethics Approval of Research 

The study protocol was approved by the University of Phayao human ethics committee (No. UP-
HEC 1.2/003/65). The informed consent was not obtained by the participants. The completion of the 
questionnaire by the participants was an indication of consent to participate. 
 
3. Results 

There was a total of 406 people that responded to the survey. Fifteen were excluded: 10 
respondents were under the age of 18; and 5 respondents were not completely submitted. Finally, a total 
of 391 questionnaires were analyzed in the study. Demographic characteristics of respondents were 
shown in Table 1. The mean age was 26.19 years (SD=9.24). Most were women (77.8%) and had 
bachelor’s degree and higher education (84.7%) and resided in the north of Thailand (44.8%). Half of 
them (55.8%) were healthcare providers or health profession students. A small percentage of 
respondents reported experiencing telepharmacy in community pharmacies (16.4%) and hospitals 
(17.6%). 
 

Table 1. 
Demographic characteristics of respondents (n = 391). 

Characteristics Groups n % 
1. Gender 
  

Female 304 77.8 
Male 87 22.2 

2. Age; years Mean 26.19  9.24    

3. Education  
   

Under Bachelor 60 15.3 
Bachelor’s degree and higher 331 84.7 

4. Residency  North  175 44.8 
Central  125 31.9 
North – east  48 12.3 
East  23 5.9 
South  15 3.8 
West  5 1.3 

5. Occupations  Students  235 60.1 
Government officers 98 25.1 
Private officers 14 3.6 
Others 44 11.2 

6. Income (Bath/month)   < 5,000 134 34.3 

5000 – 10,000 99 25.3 
10,001 – 20,000 79 20.2 
20,001 – 30,000 35 9.0 
> 30,000 44 11.2 

7. Telepharmacy experiences  Drugstores  64 16.4 
Hospitals  69 17.6 

8. Underlying diseases Yes 41 10.5 
No 350 89.5 

9. Working /Studying in the medical field Yes 173 44.2 
No 218 55.8 

 
3.1. Thais’ Attitude Toward Telepharmacy Services  

Overall mean score of Thais’ opinion on telepharmacy in community pharmacies was 4.15  0.45. 

The highest rating was given to opinions on telepharmacy procedures (4.49  0.49), perceived benefits 



3143 

 

 
Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology 
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Vol. 8, No. 6: 3140-3149, 2024 
DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v8i6.2675 
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(4.32  0.58), telepharmacy platforms (3.97  0.67), and perceived impacts (3.52  0.84), 

respectively. According to telepharacy procedure section, the respondents strongly agreed with 

providing the drug allergies or adverse drug reaction (ADRs) history to the pharmacy personnel (4.67  

0.62); ensuring the confidentiality of medical history (4.63  0.72); and community pharmacies should be 

monitored for ADRs after serving through telepharmacy (4.63  0.69). In perceived benefits section, 
most respondents mentioned that the telepharmacy services would: minimize the risk of contracting of 

communicable diseases (4.59  0.70); enhance the accessibility to medications and pharmaceutical 

services (4.57  0.69); and enable them to save time by avoiding trips to the pharmacy (4.49  0.74). In 
Perceived impacts section, the respondents express concern about the escalating medicine pricing (3.98 

 1.01); legitimacy of medicine obtained (3.73  1.07); and the quality of medicine during the delivery 

process (3.60  1.08). In telepharmacy platforms section, the respondents realized that community 

pharmacies should have a dedicated platform for their telepharmacy services (4.50  0.77). They 

indicated that telepharmacy should be delivered through video chat (4.33  0.85) or through a chat box 

(4.32  0.88). The results of the opinions on telepharmacy among each item were shown in Table 2.  
 
Table 2. 
Thais’ opinions toward Telepharmacy in community pharmacies (n = 391). 

Statement 
n (%) Mean 

(SD) 5 4 3 2 1 
Telepharmacy procedure      4.49 

(0.49) 
1. Telepharmacy should be available at 
community pharmacies. 

244 
(62.4) 

113 
(28.9) 

28 
(7.1) 

3 
(0.8) 

3 
(0.8) 

4.51 
(0.73) 

2. The client's medical profile should be 
recorded during the session of service.  

224 
(57.3) 

129 
(33.0) 

30 
(7.7) 

6 
(1.5) 

2 
(0.5) 

4.45 
(0.75) 

3. It is also essential to record audio or video 
during the session of service. 

144 
(36.8) 

107 
(27.4) 

89 
(22.8) 

31 
(7.9) 

20 
(5.1) 

3.83 
(1.16) 

4. It is necessary to preserve the confidentiality 
of the client's information.  

291 
(74.4) 

62 
(15.9) 

32 
(8.2) 

4 
(1.0) 

2 
(0.5) 

4.63 
(0.72) 

5. You are comfortable providing your 
information about current illness, as well as 
your medical and medication histories. 

264 
(67.5) 

95 
(24.3) 

26 
(6.7) 

4 
(1.0) 

2 
(0.5) 

4.57 
(0.78) 

6. You are comfortable providing your 
information about drug allergy or adverse drug 
reactions.  

292 
(74.6) 

73 
(18.7) 

23 
(5.9) 

3 
(0.8) 

0 
(0.0) 

4.67 
(0.62) 

7. You are comfortable providing your 
information about dietary supplement, 
vitamins, and herbs.  

265 
(67.8) 

90 
(23.0) 

32 
(8.2) 

4 
(1.0) 

0 
(0.0) 

4.58 
(0.69) 

8. After the telepharmacy is completed, 
pharmacists should be monitored for adverse 
drug reactions. 

285 
(72.9) 

73 
(18.7) 

28 
(7.2) 

4 
(1.0) 

1 
(0.2) 

4.63 
(0.69) 

9. After the telepharmacy is completed, 
pharmacists should be monitored for drug 
compliances. 

232 
(59.3) 

99 
(25.3) 

53 
(13.6) 

5 
(1.3) 

2 
(0.5) 

4.42 
(0.81) 

10. After the telepharmacy is completed, 
pharmacists should be monitored for the 
efficacy of treatments.  

250 
(63.9) 

96 
(24.6) 

42 
(10.7) 

3 
(0.8) 

0 
(0.0) 

4.52 
(0.72) 

11. Telepharmacy should be used to provide 
medication counseling. 

274 
(70.1) 

90 
(23.0) 

25 
(6.4) 

2 
(0.5) 

0 
(0.0) 

4.62 
(0.63) 

Perceived benifits         4.32 



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(0.58) 
12. Telepharmacy helps you to have much 
more convenient access to drugs and 
pharmacists.  

262 
(67.0) 

64 
(24.0) 

32 
(8.2) 

2 
(0.5) 

1 
(0.3) 

4.57 
(0.69) 

13. Telepharmacy helps you to get medicines 
on promptly. 

182 
(46.6) 

108 
(27.6) 

83 
(21.2) 

15 
(3.8) 

3 
(0.8) 

4.15 
(0.94) 

14. Telepharmacy helps you attempt to use 
medicines and medical products in the most 
appropriate and safest terms possible. 

198 
(50.6) 

117 
(30.0) 

68 
(17.4) 

6 
(1.5) 

2 
(0.5) 

4.29 
(0.84) 

15. Telepharmacy helps you save money on 
travel costs to the pharmacy. 

234 
(59.8) 

100 
(25.6) 

39 
(10.0) 

13 
(3.3) 

5 
(1.3) 

4.39 
(0.89) 

16. Telepharmacy helps you save time by 
eliminating the need to visit the pharmacy. 

242 
(61.9) 

105 
(26.9) 

39 
(10.0) 

4 
(1.0) 

1 
(0.2) 

4.49 
(0.74) 

17. Telepharmacy helps you consult a 
pharmacist more conveniently or easily when 
you have drug-related problems. 

230 
(58.8) 

114 
(29.2) 

36 
(9.2) 

11 
(2.8) 

0 
(0.0) 

4.44 
(0.78) 

18. Telepharmacy helps you avoid the risk of 
communicable diseases such as COVID-19.  

272 
(69.6) 

87 
(22.2) 

27 
(6.9) 

3 
(0.8) 

2 
(0.5) 

4.59 
(0.70) 

19. Telepharmacy helps you receive more 
effective treatment.  

144 
(36.8) 

127 
(32.5) 

102 
(26.1) 

14 
(3.6) 

4 
(1.0) 

4.01 
(0.93) 

20. Telepharmacy helps you to obtain essential 
information related to medication use. 

173 
(44.2) 

147 
(37.6) 

64 
(16.4) 

4 
(1.0) 

3 
(0.8) 

4.24 
(0.81) 

21. Telepharmacy encourages you to have 
more compliance with your medication 
regimen. 

147 
(37.6) 

146 
(37.3) 

75 
(19.2) 

18 
(4.6) 

5 
(1.3) 

4.05 
(0.93) 

Perceived impacts      3.52 
(0.84) 

22. You have concerns about the medication's 
stability or quality during transportation. 

92 
(23.5) 

124 
(31.7) 

117 
(29.9) 

43 
(11.0) 

15 
(3.8) 

3.60 
(1.08) 

23. You have concerns about the possibility of 
a price increase for medications. 

149 
(38.1) 

126 
(32.2) 

84 
(21.5) 

24 
(6.1) 

8 
(2.0) 

3.98 
(1.01) 

24. You have concerns about the medication 
you received, such as incorrect or insufficient 
medication.  

107 
(27.4) 

136 
(34.8) 

97 
(24.8) 

37 
(9.5) 

14 
(3.6) 

3.73 
(1.07) 

25. Once you do not select the product 
yourself, you suffer from receiving low-quality 
items.  

82 
(21.0) 

106 
(27.1) 

125 
(32.0) 

43 
(11.0) 

35 
(9.0) 

3.40 
(1.19) 

26. You have limitations on using 
communication technology for dealing with 
pharmacies. 

66  
(16.9) 

83 
(21.2) 

84  
(21.5) 

60  
(15.4) 

98  
(26.1) 

2.90  
(1.43) 

Telepharmacy platforms      3.97  
(0.67) 

27. Telepharmacy should be given via 
telephone. 

198  
(50.6) 

134 
(34.3) 

50  
(12.8) 

5 
(1.3) 

4 
(1.0) 

4.32  
(0.82) 

28. Telepharmacy should be given via  
e-mail.  

102  
(26.1) 

107 
(27.4) 

96 
(24.5) 

55  
(14.1) 

31 
(7.9) 

3.50  
(1.24) 

29. Telepharmacy should be given via chats.  209  
(53.4) 

123 
(31.5) 

41  
(10.5) 

13 
(3.3) 

5 
(1.3) 

4.32  
(0.88) 

30. Telepharmacy should be given via  
VDO chats.  

205  
(52.4) 

123 
(31.5) 

50  
(12.8) 

10 
(2.5) 

3 
(0.8) 

4.33  
(0.85) 

31. Telepharmacy should be given via 168 123 67 17 16 4.05  



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Facebook.  (42.9) (31.5) (17.1) (4.4) (4.1) (1.07) 
32. Telepharmacy should be given via Line.  211 

(54.0) 
117 
(29.9) 

47 
(12.0) 

9 
(2.3) 

7 
(1.8) 

4.32  
(0.90) 

33. Telepharmacy should be given via WeChat.  95 
(24.3) 

73 
(18.7) 

104 
(26.6) 

62 
(15.8) 

57 
(14.6) 

3.22  
(1.36) 

34. Telepharmacy should be given via 
WhatsApp. 

89 
(22.8) 

74 
(18.9) 

109 
(27.9) 

58 
(14.8) 

61 
(15.6) 

3.18  
(1.36) 

35. Telepharmacy should be given via  
Zoom Meeting. 

146 
(37.3) 

116 
(29.7) 

71 
(18.2) 

25 
(6.4) 

33 
(8.4) 

3.81  
(1.24) 

36. Telepharmacy should be given via Google 
Meet.  

132 
(33.8) 

117 
(29.9) 

85 
(21.7) 

23 
(5.9) 

34 
(8.7) 

3.74  
(1.22) 

37. Telepharmacy should be given via specific 
application.  

254 
(64.9) 

85 
(21.7) 

46 
(11.8) 

5 
(1.3) 

1 
(0.3) 

4.50  
(0.77) 

Overall 
4.15  
(0.45) 

Note:  5 = strongly agree; 4 = agree; 3 = neutral; 2 = disagree; 1 = strongly disagree; SD = Standard deviations. 

 
3.2. Subgroup Analysis of Thais’ Opinion Toward Telepharmacy 

Subgroup analyses of several categorical variables, such as education (p = 0.786), residency (p = 
0.622), occupations (p = 0.960), income per month (p = 0.183), underlying disease history (p = 0.845), 
and telepharmacy experiences in community pharmacies (p = 0.541) and hospitals (p = 0.922), did not 
reveal statistically significant differences (Table 3). On the other hand, the results of the study indicated 

that females had higher opinion mean scores than males, statistically significantly (females, 4.18  0.44 

vs. males, 4.08  0.48; p = 0.017). A statistically significant difference was found in the subgroup analysis 
of those working or studying in the medical field. Healthcare–related people performed poorly opinions 

mean scores than the general population (4.09  0.44 vs. 4.19  0.47, p = 0.026).  
 

Table 3. 
Subgroup analysis of Thais’ opinion toward telepharmacy in community pharmacies. 

Characteristics Mean SD Ta, Fb p-value 
1. Gendera     
Male 4.08 0.48 

-2.3981 0.017* 
Female 4.18 0.44 
2. Educationa     
Under Bachelor 4.14 0.49 -0.2720 0.786 
Bachelor’s degree and higher 4.15 0.44 
3. Residencyb     
North  4.12 0.43 0.70 0.622 
Central  4.16 0.45 
North – east  4.18 0.46 
East  4.24 0.54 
South  3.96 0.38 
West  4.22 0.42 
4. Occupationsb     
Students  4.13 0.45 

0.83 0.960 
Government officers 4.18 0.45 
Private officers 4.31 0.48 
Others 4.12 0.47 
5. Incomeb (Bath/month)     

< 5,000 4.09 0.47 
1.56 0.183 

5000 – 10,000 4.15 0.42 



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10,001 – 20,000 4.21 0.50 
20,001 – 30,000 4.26 0.44 
> 30,000 4.15 0.35 
6. Underlying diseasesa     
Yes 4.14 0.44 

-0.1957 0.845 
No 4.15 0.45 
7. Working /studying in the medical fielda     
Yes 4.09 0.44 

-2.2383 0.026* 
No 4.19 0.47 
8. Telepharmacy Experiences in Drugstoresa     
Yes 4.12 0.50 

-0.6115 0.541 
No 4.16 0.44 
9. Telepharmacy Experiences in Hospitalsa     
Yes 4.15 0.47 

-0.0979 0.922 
No 4.15 0.45 

Note:   at-test; bone way ANOVA, *p < 0.05, SD = Standard deviations. 

 
3.3 Factors Affecting Thais’ Opinions Toward Telepharmacy  

The factors that influenced the Thais’ opinion score were analyzed and shown in  
Table 4. The opinion scores toward telepharmacy were unlikely to be affected by general characteristics 
such as education, residency, occupation, telepharmacy experience, and age. The results of regression 
analysis demonstrated that the positive factors were gender (p = 0.017), income (p = 0.036), and 
working or studying in the medical field (p = 0.011).  
 

Table 4. 
Factors affecting Thais’ opinions regarding telepharmacy in community pharmaciesa 

Factors Coef. SE t Sig. 
1. Coefficients  3.7633 0.1374 27.37 0.000* 
2. Age -0.0051 0.0029 -1.75 0.080 
3. Gender  0.1302 0.0543 2.4 0.017* 
4. Income per month  0.0347 0.1648 2.10 0.036* 
5. Working or studying in the medical field 0.1165 0.0459 2.54 0.011* 

Note:   aMultiple regression analysis using Stepwise backward elimination method; Adjust R2 = 0.0324, R-squared = 
0.424, F=4.27, *p < 0.05. 

 
 
 
4. Discussion 

The purpose of this study was to determine the general public's opinions on telepharmacy services 
of drugstores. The results of this study will help to understand people's opinions better and can be used 
as a guideline for the development of telepharmacy services for drugstores in Thailand.  

Most respondents (91.3%) agreed that community pharmacies should offer the telepharmacy 

services (62.4% strongly agree and 28.9 % agree). This is consistent to previous study of Welch et.al 
[24], the results demonstrated that most people were willing to use telemedicine with their health care 
provider since the convenience of using the service. As in prior study in Thailand, the participants 
consented to utilize telepharmacy services owing to the convenience from not needing to commute to 
the pharmacy [18]. On the other hand, if they had to choose in-person or telepharmacy visits, most of 
the participants preferred in-person visits [25]. 

The availability of complementary pharmaceutical care was one factor that increased customers' 
willingness to use telepharmacy [26]. Pharmacists should provide more counseling roles instead of only 
dispensing medications.[27] In this current study, most of the respondents agreed that pharmacies should 
offer pharmaceutical care via telepharmacy, such as: adverse drug reactions monitoring (91.6%), 



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treatment efficacy follow-up (88.5%), medication adherence follow-up (84.6%), and drug counseling 
(83.1%).  

According to the Standard of Telephamacy, community pharmacies also needed to accommodate 
audio or video throughout the timeframe of services and document the medical history in the 
pharmacy's system at the end of the services. Results of current study indicated that respondents agreed 
to have audio or video recording during the service (64.2%). Nearly 22.8% were neither agree nor 
disagree. The Enopex project reported a mean rate of confidentiality issues of 1.6%, and 98.4% of 
respondents pointed out that they experienced no issues regarding confidentiality [26]. Several studies 
have raised concerns regarding patient privacy [29-30]. Therefore, maximum protection of patient data 
must be ensured. 

The study on the outpatients’ opinion regarding to telepharmacy during the COVID-19 pandemic 
revealed that the patients considered that telepharmacy had positively impacted their communication 
with pharmacists. The most appreciated aspect of telepharmacy was the ability to avoid having to travel 
to the hospital while the state of emergency was in effect, thereby avoiding the risk of infection with the 
Sars-CoV-2 virus [26]. Consistent with the results of this study, respondents agreed that telepharmacy 
services decreased the chance of exposure to communicable diseases (88.0%), improved ease of access to 
medications and pharmacists (91.0%), and decreased travel time to the drugstore (88.8%). It should also 
be noted that the most well-liked feature of telepharmacy is that it has minimized necessity physical 
visits to community pharmacies.[31]  

The respondents in this survey were concerned about the possibility of increasing drug prices 
(70.3%), obtaining wrong or inadequate medicine (62.3%), and drug's quality or stability while in transit 
(55.2%). The price of medications is an indisputably crucial aspect that patients evaluate when deciding 
whether or not to acquire services. In Thailand, Traditional pharmacy cost is mostly determined by the 
price of the medications since no additional fee for pharmacist consultation is obligatory. A previous 
study of Thais' opinions found that several participants would utilize telepharmacy even though there 
would be payments for services, since they believed it was acceptable to be charged for professional 
consultation or delivery services [15]. According to Predmore et al.[25] and Alsayed et al.[27] studies, 
respondents in the United States, Jordan, and Iraq were willing to pay for telepharmacy similar to Thai 
people. Telepharmacy is the practice of connecting pharmacists to their patients across greater distances 
using communications technology. Telepharmacy may be delivered by computer, video, telephone, or 
instant messaging. Previous studies employed telepharmacy communication techniques that differed by 
context and area [32-34].  

The current study's findings indicated that respondents desire a specialized platform for 
telepharmacy services. The most convenient platforms were VDO consulting, chatting, and telephone 
calls. Telepharmacy technologies must be simple to use for both patients and practitioners. The best 
solutions are as straightforward to deploy and use in medical offices as they are for patients. 
Furthermore, our findings suggest that gender, income and working or studying in the medical field 
were associated with customers’ opinion on telepharmacy. Inconsistency to the prior study, Orrange et 
al.[35] demonstrated that age was the only significant factor associated with patients’ satisfaction on 
telemedicine. Several studies have demonstrated that health professionals have a favorable opinion 
toward telemedicine [36-38]. 

The strength of the current study is that it represents a huge number of replies on telepharmacy. 
However, we also address few limitations. First, more than 80% of respondents were under the age of 
30. Our findings showed less representation from the elderly population. Second, the study gathered 
responses from people who completed the survey online, those who had access to the internet, and those 
who were technologically savvy; hence, the results may not be representative of all sorts of patients. 
 
5. Conclusions 

Thais expressed great willingness to accept telepharmacy services in community pharmacies. The 
findings suggested that telepharmacy is a crucial service offered by community pharmacies. It facilitated 
clients' access to medications and pharmacists. The respondents were willing to provide information 
about treatment via telepharmacy and agreed that pharmacies should ensure the confidentiality of their 



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clients' information. They were not constrained by technological constraints and agreed that pharmacies 
should have dedicated platforms for providing telepharmacy. Females greatly outperformed males in 
terms of mean opinion scores about telepharmacy. Healthcare professionals scored lower on average 
than the general population. And gender, income, as well as working or studies in the medical area, 
influenced the Thais' opinion. Continuous development in community pharmacy telepharmacy was 
required. 

 
Acknowledgments: 
The authors would like to thank the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Phayao for their 
financial support and all participants for undertaking this survey. 
Author’s Contribution: 
The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: conceptualization–OM, PJ, PW, SP; 
methodology–OM, SP, PJ, PW; data collection: PJ, PW; formal analysis–OM, SP; validation–OM; 
writing original draft–OM; review and editing manuscript–OM, SP, PJ, PW; supervision–OM. All 
authors read and approved of the final manuscript.  
 
Copyright:  
© 2024 by the authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions 
of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 
 
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