Objectives This qualitative study aims to explore the perception of family members on using telemedicine in a rural community, Khon Kean Province, Thailand.

Method Fifty-five pairs of older people and family caregivers enrolled. This study used the structural interview for collecting data. Data analysis used the contents analysis.

Results The finding indicated that the majority of older people and their family members prefers to visit their physician in a health facility due to believe and trust the health professional skill rather than health volunteers or family members. The barrier of using telemedicine in the rural community was literacy and believe of both older people and family caregivers. Most of the older people family used the internet and have smart devices. Few older people are able to use a smart device. Older people fear to use smart devices related to a complex application and their literacy. Moreover, health conditions such as visual impairment, hearing impairment, memory impairment distributed as a barrier to learning a new technology.

Conclusions The conclusion that this era has two barriers to applying digital health in the rural community includes literacy of older people and family caregivers and self-esteem on home-health care. Developing health care technology must simple, appropriated to low literacy user, specific older adult. Using digital technology in healthcare services may cause of social inequality for the poor property, policy marker should considerate.