A systematic review of the use of telehealth in speech, language and hearing sciences

Molini-Avejonas, Daniela Regina; Rondon-Melo, Silmara; Amato, Cibelle Albuquerque de la Higuera; Samelli, Alessandra Giannella

doi:10.1177/1357633x15583215

Cited by 219 publications

(197 citation statements)

References 104 publications

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“…Telehealth is finding increasingly wide application among speech-language pathologists (SLPs) 16 . Its capacity to improve service access, efficiencies and outcomes for an expanding range of difficulties, disorders and populations is well supported by research 17 .…”

Section: Technology As Part Of a Solution To Allied Health Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Speech–language pathology telehealth in rural and remote schools: the experience of school executive and therapy assistants

Fairweather

Lincoln

Ramsden

2017

Rural Remote Health

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Introduction: Difficulties in accessing allied health services, especially in rural and remote areas, appear to be driving the use of telehealth services to children in schools. The objectives of this study were to investigate the experiences and views of school executive staff and therapy assistants regarding the feasibility and acceptability of a speech-language pathology telehealth program for children attending schools in rural and remote New South Wales, Australia. The program, called Come N See, provided therapy interventions remotely via low-bandwidth videoconferencing, with email follow-up. Over a 12-week period, children were offered therapy blocks of six fortnightly sessions, each lasting a maximum of 30 minutes. Methods: School executives (n=5) and therapy assistants (n=6) described factors that promoted or threatened the program's feasibility and acceptability, during semistructured interviews. Thematic content analysis with constant comparison was applied to the transcribed interviews to identify relationships in the data. Results: Emergent themes related to (a) unmet speech pathology needs, (b) building relationships, (c) telehealth's advantages, (d) telehealth's disadvantages, (e) anxiety replaced by joy and confidence in growing skills, and (f) supports. Conclusions: School executive staff and therapy assistants verified that the delivery of the school-based telehealth service was feasible and acceptable. However, the participants saw significant opportunities to enhance this acceptability through building into the program stronger working relationships and supports for stakeholders. These findings are important for the future development of allied health telehealth programs that are sustainable as well as effective and fit the needs of all crucial stakeholders. The results © GC Fairweather, MA Lincoln, R Ramsden 2017. A Licence to publish this material has been given to James Cook University, http://www.jcu.edu.au 2 have significant implications for speech pathology clinical practice relating to technology, program planning and teamwork within telehealth programs.

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Section: Technology As Part Of a Solution To Allied Health Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Speech–language pathology telehealth in rural and remote schools: the experience of school executive and therapy assistants

Fairweather

Lincoln

Ramsden

2017

Rural Remote Health

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“…In terms of telehealth in the area of Speech Therapy and Audiology, a prevalence of publications in the area of Audiology, with greater focus on assessment or intervention, has been observed, and the number of papers on this subject has risen, mainly in the last five years 12 . Correlating telehealth in speech and language pathology and audiology, inserted into the contemporary marketing and compared to the condition of product or service, it can be made available to users, provided that studies examining its quality and facilitating the sustainability of such actions with optimization strategies for its operation, be carried out 13 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Desenvolvimento e aplicação de instrumento administrativo para orientação das pesquisas em telefonoaudiologia

et al. 2016

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Purpose: to develop and apply a tool to guide research on Telehealth in Speech and Language Pathology and to identify the strong and weak aspects of these projects. Methods: a questionnaire addressing administrative, technological, financial and sustainable points was developed. Eleven teachers who had been working on projects on Telehealth in Speech and Language Pathology answered the questionnaire. These data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the SWOT Matrix was applied, enabling the identification of the strong and weak points, and the Ishikawa Diagram used to identify the effects and causes. Results: the questionnaires were applied and 32 projects in which the purpose of the project, the quality of the information, the communication channels and the benefits to users were identified as strong points, were analyzed, having as the main causes the use of specific multimedia, continued education, the amount of available information and the commitment of the team. Weak aspects such as the absence of qualified personnel in certain stages of the project, the lack of hardware and software updating, the digital exclusion of users and the obsolescence of the project were seen, the main causes owing to the difficulty in technical support, professionals for marketing and training strategies and the maintenance of the developed projects. Conclusion: the questionnaire was developed and applied, so as to identify the strong and weak points related to training. Maximizing of the time and updating of digital resources were identified as important inputs to extend the benefits of telehealth projects, towards organizational competitive advantage. Keywords: Telemedicine; Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences; Planning RESUMO Objetivo: desenvolver e aplicar um instrumento para orientação das pesquisas em Telefonoaudiologia e identificar os pontos fortes e fracos destes projetos. Métodos: foi desenvolvido um questionário, abordando quatro competências distintas: administrativa, tecnológica, financeira e de sustentabilidade. Realizou-se a aplicação com 11 docentes que desenvolviam projetos na área de Telefonoaudiologia. Tais dados foram analisados por meio de estatística descritiva e aplicada a Matriz SWOT, que possibilitou identificar os pontos fortes e fracos, bem como o Diagrama de Ishikawa, para identificar os efeitos e causas. Resultados: foram aplicados os questionários e analisados 32 projetos em que os pontos fortes foram: a missão do projeto, a qualidade das informações, os canais de comunicação e os benefícios proporcionados aos usuários, tendo como principais causas a utilização de multimeios específicos, a educação continuada, a quantidade de informações disponibilizadas e o comprometimento do capital humano. Quanto aos pontos fracos, constatou-se a ausência de especialização da mão de obra em determinadas etapas do projeto, a falta de atualização de hardware e software, a exclusão digital de usuários e a obsolescência do projeto, sendo as principais causas concentradas na dificuldade de suporte té...

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“…Some children will present with normal skills, and will not require a comprehensive assessment. This may improve efficiency and save costs for the service provider (32 Telepractice also offers the opportunity for local SLPs to access educational and mentoring opportunities (131,(138)(139)(140). Telemedicine studies have reported improved communication between local doctors and paediatric subspecialists (138,139,141), with subsequent improvements in the quality and continuity of care (138,139,(141)(142)(143)(144)(145).…”

Section: Figure 6 Possible Telepractice Screening Pathwaymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These studies report that SLPs are often reluctant to provide direct services due to concerns regarding the efficacy of assessment and therapy interventions delivered via telepractice. It is interesting that this perception continues despite a growing evidence base in the area of speech pathology telepractice (32,(147)(148)(149)(150)(151)(152)(153)(154)(155)(156)(157)(158)(159)(160)(161).…”

Section: Suitability Of Patient Groups and Services For Telepracticementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Telepractice allows CMC to access speech pathology screening remotely, which may save money (31,32), travel, and time (31), and can also reduce waiting lists. There is a growing body of research that supports telepractice for speech pathology service delivery (32), however, only one study to date has investigated the use of telepractice for screening or assessment with CMC (33). There is also limited evidence to support telepractice speech and language screening among the broader paediatric population (34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41).…”

Section: Chapter 1 Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Speech and language screening for children with medical complexity: A comparison of telepractice and in-person methods

Taylor¹

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Effective communication is vital for healthy development and successful educational and vocational outcomes. For children with medical complexity (CMC), the interaction between medical complexity and a speech and language impairment may put them at particular risk for adverse effects. It is important that these children are promptly assessed and diagnosed so that intervention can be started early. Medical complexity is rare in childhood, thus CMC usually access speech pathology services through tertiary facilities where staff have specialist experience and resources, and work as part of a coordinated tertiary team. Unfortunately these facilities are typically located in metropolitan centres, which may compromise service accessibility for CMC living in rural and remote locations.A potential solution to improve service accessibility is remote speech and language screening using telepractice. Telepractice screening allows the speech-language pathologist (SLP) to distinguish those children who need further assessment at the tertiary hospital from those with normal speech and language. This model is increasingly used for the delivery of tertiary medical services, however, there is little research to support the use of telepractice for paediatric speech and language screening, and very few studies have included CMC. Thus, the overall purpose of this research project was to investigate the role of telepractice for remote speech and language screening of CMC. To achieve this aim, two studies were carried out.The first study was an international survey of tertiary SLPs that aimed to describe access difficulties experienced by CMC, and to investigate the rate of telepractice adoption among SLPs who work with CMC. The survey was administered in 2011 (n = 46) and repeated in 2015 (n = 47). This survey identified widespread access difficulties experienced by CMC, highlighting a need for alternative service delivery models such as telepractice. Telepractice adoption among tertiary SLPs more than doubled between 2011 and 2015 (p < 0.05), and in 2015 the rates of telepractice adoption were higher (40%) than previously reported for the general speech pathology profession. Tertiary SLPs were willing to use telepractice with their CMC patients, and considered a wide range of patient groups and service types to be appropriate for telepractice delivery. However, some SLPs were reluctant to use telepractice for direct services such as screening, and a number of barriers to telepractice adoption were identified, including inability poor audio and image quality, lack of experience with telepractice, concerns about behaviour management and use of hands-on techniques, and concerns about the caregiver's inability to assist during telepractice sessions.ii The second study was an exploratory method comparison study that aimed to investigate the feasibility, validity, and acceptability of speech and language screening via telepractice for CMC.This study compared in-person speech and language screening with two telepractice screening ...

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A systematic review of the use of telehealth in speech, language and hearing sciences

Cited by 219 publications

References 104 publications

Speech–language pathology telehealth in rural and remote schools: the experience of school executive and therapy assistants

Speech–language pathology telehealth in rural and remote schools: the experience of school executive and therapy assistants

Desenvolvimento e aplicação de instrumento administrativo para orientação das pesquisas em telefonoaudiologia

Speech and language screening for children with medical complexity: A comparison of telepractice and in-person methods

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