User attitudes towards virtual home assessment technologies

Abstract

Telehealth has long been highlighted as a way to solve issues of efficiency and effectiveness in healthcare and to improve patients’ care and has become fundamental to address patients’ needs during the COVID-19 pandemic; however previous studies have shown mixed results in the user acceptance of such technologies. Whilst many previous studies have focussed on clinical application of telehealth, we focus on the adoption of telehealth for virtual assessments visits aimed to evaluate the suitability of a property where a patient is discharged, and eventual adaptations needed. We present a study of stakeholders’ attitudes towards such virtual assessment visits. The study has been carried out with healthcare professionals and patients and allowed us to identify user attitudes, barriers and facilitators for the success of virtual assessment visits from the point of view of healthcare professionals and patients. Finally, we discuss implications for designers of telehealth services and guidelines that can be derived from our study.

Keywords:

• Telehealth
• remote assessment visits
• occupation therapists

Acknowledgments

We thank all the volunteers that took part to the workshops and provided us with insightful comments and design advice. The authors gratefully acknowledge grants from RESEARCH ENGLAND/HEFCE, HEIF (Viva feasibility in practice, Grant number: 162509).

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/ageing/WPA2017_Highlights.pdf

2 https://www.who.int/sustainable-development/health-sector/strategies/telehealth/en/

3 https://www.accurx.com/

4 https://www.attendanywhere.com/

5 https://beta.nhs.uk/service-manual/

6 https://www.nhs.uk/nhsengland/keogh-review/documents/quick-guides/quick-guide-discharge-to-access.pdf

7 https://www.nhs.uk/nhsengland/keogh-review/documents/quick-guides/quick-guide-discharge-to-access.pdf

8 https://beta.nhs.uk/service-manual/design-principles

9 https://www.nhs.uk/nhsengland/keogh-review/documents/quick-guides/quick-guide-discharge-to-access.pdf

Additional information

Funding

The research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Devices for Dignity MedTech Co-operative. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.