JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

It is widely accepted that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the era of virtual healthcare delivery, but there has been limited exploration of patient and clinician experiences of telehealth.

Objective:

To understand the telehealth experiences of patients and healthcare practitioners (HCP) in palliative care.

Methods:

Participants were recruited from a major tertiary hospital palliative care unit to participate in a study using photo-elicitation interviews, a qualitative research method that uses photographs during an interview. An intertextual analysis was conducted to identify themes and visual motifs within the interviews.

Results:

Three overarching themes (i.e., comfort, connection, and care) were identified as central to the telehealth experience. Patients (n= 6) described telehealth as supporting their physical and psychological comfort and maintaining connection with HCPs, yet there were specific situations where it failed to meet their needs. HCPs (n= 6) recognised the benefit of telehealth for patients but reported physical and professional discomfort using telehealth along with a sense of disconnection, often reported for virtual conferencing in wider contexts. The technical and physical infrastructure surrounding telehealth provided context to the experiential journey.

Conclusions:

This qualitative study presented a deep experiential understanding of telehealth from the perspective of patients and HCPs in a palliative care setting. Patients and HCPs experienced telehealth differently, which is likely to reflect the amount of time they spent engaged in telehealth and different experiences of the burden associated with in-person appointments. The findings contribute to the development of future telehealth improvements for palliative care patients. Clinical Trial: Not applicable