Needs and readiness to use tele-practice for identification and rehabilitation of children with hearing and speech-language disorders: perceptions of public sector care providers in South India

ABSTRACT

This study was an initial step toward planning tele-practice in a South Indian state's public-sector services for childhood hearing and speech-language problems. The aim was to understand the perceptions public-sector health care professionals (HCPs) regarding their willingness and need for tele-practice-based diagnostics and rehabilitation services. Focus group discussions (FGD), semi-structured interviews (SSI), and geo-spatial analysis were employed in a cross-sectional study. Different public-sector HCPs participated in the qualitative study. Data sufficiency was assessed using theoretical saturation and cross-case variance. Data was analyzed using hybrid deductive-inductive thematic analysis. Geo-tags and geo-locations of all children with disabilities and all the public-sector service providers were used to generate geospatial maps. HCPs felt that childhood hearing and speech-language disorder services were inadequate and lacked sufficient qualified professionals. There was inconsistent equipment and professional availability in district-level facilities. HCPs were comfortable using technology, and were willing to investigate tele-practice, but they required training in tele-practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Barriers
• needs
• readiness
• tele-practice
• semi-structured interviews
• focus group discussions
• thematic analysis
• geographic information systems

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the participants who consented to take part in the focus groups and interviews for their time and input into the research. We would also like to thank field workers for their assistance in organizing the gathering of participants in rural areas.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This study was a part of larger project ‘Effectiveness of a comprehensive Tele practice model for identification and rehabilitation of children with hearing and speech-language disorders in rural communities’ conducted with grant support from the DBT/Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance IA/CPHI/19/1/504614] awarded to the first author.

Notes on contributors

Neethi Jesudass

Neethi Jesudass is pursuing her Ph.D. in the area of “Situational analysis and needs assessment (Tele-practice)”. Her clinical and research interests include tele-practice, newborn hearing screening, and diagnostic audiology. She has over twelve years of experience.

Vidya Ramkumar

Vidya Ramkumar has spent the last decade working on developing service delivery models using e-and mhealth tools to bridge gaps in hearing health care services in the underserved regions. The SRESHT lab was set up by her in 2020 (Services To Reach hildren With Speech & Hearing Disorders Using Telepractice see SRESHT Lab) to pursue implementation research in community based interventions using tele-practice. She is involved in development of low-cost indigenous assistive and testing devices that can support early identification and rehabilitation of children with developmental and hearing disabilities. She is also a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Professional Research fellow (2014).

Shuba Kumar

Shuba Kumar is a social scientist with extensive experience in qualitative research. She is involved in several collaborative projects across health care disciplines and also is a master trainer for qualitative research.