Telehealth: Changing the Face of Healthcare
Janice Lanham, Teresa Lyons, Elizabeth Foley, Emily Gandy
Background
There is a growing body of evidence indicating that telemedicine improves the quality of patient care and care efficiency (Chi & Demiris, 2015; Robinson, Turner, & Wood, 2015; Lazzara et al., 2015). Telemedicine can be facilitated through the use of computer and mobile technologies to improve collaboration and delivery of care. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of interdisciplinary rounding using the remote telepresence robot (RTR). The impact of the RTR on collaboration and patient care delivery will be explored from the healthcare provider’s perspective. Subjects will be interdisciplinary healthcare professionals in an acute care setting. This study will use the Collaboration and Satisfaction about Care Decisions tool to measure perceptions of collaboration. Study results will add to the current literature by expanding on areas such as digital rounding, interdisciplinary collaboration, remote robotic telepresence, and telehealth in the acute care setting. This study examines RTR, a subset of telemedicine which enables providers to remotely interact with patients and other providers using a mobile robot.
Methods
A posttest-only control group design will be used for this study. There will be two subject groups: one group will use telephones to communicate with an interdisciplinary team and with patients (the control), the other group will use RTR to communicate (the treatment group). Volunteer subjects will be randomly assigned to either the treatment or control group. These subjects will be selected using convenience sampling. Using this type of sampling will allow easy access to various levels of healthcare providers employed within the healthcare facility. After using each type of communication (telephones versus RTR), each subject will complete a survey. Permission to use the Collaboration and Satisfaction about Care Decisions survey will be sought out for this portion of the study.
Results
Results pending. Projected results are being made based off of results of similar studies done previously. Previous studies have found that RTR does not significantly enhance interdisciplinary collaboration, but does not significantly impede collaboration either. It can be predicted that this study will either confirm the results of these previous studies, or will find that the use of RTR significantly improves collaboration between interdisciplinary healthcare professionals. Hinderance of interdisciplinary collaboration by the use of RTR is not a projected result of this study.
References
Chi, N., & Demiris, G. (2015). A systematic review of telehealth tools and interventions to support family caregivers. Journal Of Telemedicine & Telecare, 21(1), 37-44. doi:10.1177/1357633X14562734
Lazzara, E. H., Benishek, L. E., Patzer, B., Gregory, M. E., Hughes, A. M., Heyne, K., . . . Schulman, C. (2015). Utilizing telemedicine in the trauma intensive care unit: Does it impact teamwork? Telemedicine Journal and e-Health : The Official Journal of the American Telemedicine Association, 21(8), 670-676. doi:10.1089/tmj.2014.0074
Robinson, J., Turner, J., & Wood, K. (2015). Patient Perceptions of Acute Care Telemedicine: A Pilot Investigation. Health Communication, 30(12), 1269-1276 8p. doi:10.1080/10410236.2014.936335
Video Citations:
Double Robotics (2015, July 25). Case study: Duke University School of Nursing + Double Robotics [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOLcTKhPEhE&list=PL_nnhgDdF61A8TEAIqKgHi-kd4CZWzGS1&index=13.
Bon Secours Hampton Roads (2015, February 2). Doctors use Double Robotics to visit patients [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jivpilOBqDI.
Picture Citations:
Double Robotics Product Photos [Photograph], Retrieved from http://www.doublerobotics.com/press.html