Home // eTELEMED 2017, The Ninth International Conference on eHealth, Telemedicine, and Social Medicine // View article
Authors:
Merete Kristin Tschamper
Wenche Schrøder Bjorbækmo
Keywords: Parent, chronic disease/illness, epilesy, disability, videoconference, patient education.
Abstract:
Abstract. In this study, four children with rare, epileptic condition including intellectual disability were interdisciplinary assessed in the National Center for Epilepsy (SSE). The results of the assessments were communicated to the children`s local support service using videoconference (VC) with the parents present. The purpose for this study was to obtain a deeper insight into parents` experiences with information exchange using VC. Methods: In-depth interviews were performed with five parents within a week after the VC. The generated material was analyzed with a thematic hermeneutic research approach. Results: The local participation increased from 2-6 in traditional face-to-face meetings to up to 22 participants in the VCs. The parents described how the increased participation ensured a direct, oral information exchange that prevented treatment misunderstandings. The parents were relieved from the responsibility to inform all professionals involved in the local community. In addition the parents suggested this increased the multidisciplinary collaboration and facilitated a comprehensive approach to the children`s complex situations. The parents experienced increased user-involvement in the process of arranging the VC compared to traditional face-to-face consultants. Some parents had started to initiate VC themselves. Conclusion: VC was considered a more potent tool for information exchange between providers than face-to-face meetings due to the increased local participation and that everyone was assured to get the same information simultaneously. However a crucial prerequisite seem to be that the professionals from the tertiary health service had clinical knowledge of the child and tailored the information exchanged according to each child and family`s needs.
Pages: 11 to 14
Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2017
Publication date: March 19, 2017
Published in: conference
ISSN: 2308-4359
ISBN: 978-1-61208-540-1
Location: Nice, France
Dates: from March 19, 2017 to March 23, 2017