Solution
Soumi answered on
May 23 2020
Title of Report: USE OF TELEMEDICINE IN LONG-TERM HEALTH CONDITIONS
Name: _____________________
Student Number: _____________________
Course: _____________________
Table of Contents
Executive Summary 3
Introduction 4
Background and Context 4
Research Issue 4
Significance of the Research 5
Research Methodology Outline 5
Literature Review 5
Methods 6
Analysis of the case study and chosen topic using SWOT and PESTLE analyses 6
Research Design 7
Sampling Procedure 8
Data Collection Procedure 8
Data Analysis Procedure 8
Findings 9
Discussions 12
Recommendations 13
Conclusion 14
References 15
Appendix 17
Executive Summary
The cu
ent research has been conducted on the use of telemedicine for managing long-term conditions. I have undertaken this research as it addresses a common contemporary issue in the medical field that is the effective use of telemedicine.
Telemedicine, being a revolutionary healthcare service, is not being used adequately, which is why in order to identify the issues leading to it and the ways it could be address, a primary quantitative research has been conducted on it. 45 healthcare professionals associated with telemedicine services have been sampled from Australian population of healthcare professionals through random probability sampling and surveyed through emails for their responses on the same.
It was found that they are not quite aware of the concept, its procedure and benefits, along with the service users, government or healthcare facilities not supporting the same.
Hence, the recommendations of relevant policy amendment, service user compliance and increasing awareness of the care professionals through evidence-based practices have been suggested.
Introduction
Telemedicine is the form of providing medication to the patients that involves the use of information technology and telecommunication sources so that the patient can be served from a distance. According to De La To
e-Diez et al. (2015), it involves both diagnosis and interventions of the patients, along with the provision of care services. It is becoming a more popular mode of care provision and treatment that is eliminating the concerns of the patient not being able to reach their doctors, care professionals, nurses or other medical personnel due to the distance or other obstructing factors. I conducted this research for analysing the use of telemedicine in the management of long-term health conditions.
Background and Context
Telemedicine has been in the practice since the early 20th century. As mentioned by Quinn et al. (2014), it was mainly introduced to meet the health and care needs of the people of Australia in the form of two-way radio that was pedalled to the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. However, the use increased, when the rural communities were assessed to be incapable of accessing the health care facilities due to staying at remotely located areas or being able to afford travelling to such a far place due to lack of conveyance (Ca
al et al. 2015).
Hence, the concept popularised especially for providing care and better living conditions to those patients. However, in case of long-term conditions, it was not quite clear if telemedicines could be used or not. The issue of the disorder prevailing in the person for a long time was a concern to make the doctors and the family members of the long-term patients to rethink their decision that whether at all it would be beneficial to let their patient seek care for such a medical condition that otherwise needs thorough personal care (Felzen et al. 2017). Therefore, I chose this topic for increasing my knowledge base on the utility of telemedicine for long-term conditions.
Research Issue
The use of telemedicine and telehealth care facilities have been acclaimed in most of the developing countries as a large number of people from their rural communities have been benefitted from it. However, as argued by Car, Huckvale and Hermens (2012), in case of long-term conditions, using telemedicines might not be the best idea, as there might be still a requirement of a more thorough research to be conducted in this field. As mentioned by Henderson et al. (2013), although presently, telemedicines are being used on full-fledged basis for the long-term conditions patients; however, it cannot be denied that the doctors do need to explore its benefits and drawbacks more clearly.
Besides, its effectiveness might be not be 100% all the time in case of long-term conditions as although the long-terms conditions are managed, nevertheless the quality of the lives of the patients concerned did not improve (The Guardian, 2013). They still suffered from the same amount of pain and agony.
Significance of the Research
Hence, this research is intended to analyse the use of telemedicine for managing patients in long-term conditions, therefore, it can serve as a useful source of information for the medical professionals, who need to
oaden their knowledge base in the field of telehealth care. Besides, this study can also support as a secondary source of data for the paper that is aimed at implementing telemedicine for any specific long-term condition, such as diabetes or hypertension. Besides, with the help of the findings of this research, the patients would also be able to identify the instance when they would be needing to refer to the literature for telehealth.
Research Methodology Outline
I have conducted this study using a primary research methodology, where the quantitative research design has been implemented. The intention of the paper was to present the experience and the opinions of the health care professionals concerned with the provision of telemedicine, so that it could be identified that the use of telemedicine is effective or not in case of the patients with long-term conditions. Therefore, in order to gather their information in a precise manner, I conducted an online survey questionnaire that consists of closed ended questions, having multiple-choice type options. 45 healthcare professionals were involved.
Literature Review
Telemedicine was introduced in Australia in the early 20th century, with its gradual spread of popularity to the other countries as well. As stated by Daniel and Sulmasy (2015), it mainly involves the usage of the telecommunication system and information technology for adhering to the needs of those patients, who live in remote areas, and are thus, not able to access healthcare services that are available usually in the proper township areas.
As supported by Joseph (2015), it proved to be a great support system to the rural community of Australia because apart from eliminating the ba
ier of geographical distance, telemedicine was also successful in reaching healthcare facilities to those people at reduced expenses than that they used to make in order to travel such a long distance to reach their required healthcare centre.
As argued by Zanaboni et al. (2017), this became a major issue when the long-term conditions had to be dealt with, which generally requires a prolonged period of availing the care facilities that might be strenuous for the rural community people to do, due to the repeated visits to the facility. Hence, the concept of telemedicine proved to be useful, in both real-time method, implementing synchronous communication, as well as store and forward method, implementing asynchronous communication.
However, as contradicted by Whitehead and Seaton (2016), it might not be an effective method of managing long-term conditions because of their severity or criticality, due to which they should be managed in person only. On the contrary, Aldiss et al. (2015) criticised this view because it would reduce hospitalisation costs, regular visits, lesser patient visits and manage time, thus giving more space for conditions that can be dealt with in shorter span. Hence, telemedicine is met with contrasting views in managing long-term conditions.
Methods
Analysis of the case study and chosen topic using SWOT and PESTLE analyses
The chosen topic here is the use of telemedicines and the concerned case study is the long-term condition patients, for whom the usage of this form of medication has been analysed. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of using telemedicines for managing long-term conditions have been analysed below:
Strengths
Weaknesses
· highly popular due to ease of use
· Increasing use of technology and internet
· Cost-effectiveness
· Can be accessed at any time of the day
· Lack of assured evidences while practiced
· Actual health issue might not be clearly or truly expressed
· Lack of...