Teleburn: Designing A Telemedicine Application to Improve Burn Treatment

Abstract

Background:Due to the increasing rate of the burn injuries and a limited number of specialized treatment centers, providing medical advice and medical care at the point of need is necessary. The aim of the present study was to design and implement a teleburn system to enhance the quality of care for the burn patients.Methods:This study was completed in 2016. In order to design the system, information needs assessment was conducted by using a questionnaire. The participants of this phase were five specialists, five general practitioners, and 12 nurses. The setting of the study was the burn department of a public hospital and a burn center. The prototype of the system was designed based on the findings derived from the first phase, and the usability of the system was evaluated later.Results:The teleburn system was a web-based system with different sections for GPs/nurses and specialists. In total, 28 burn consultations were made successfully by using the system. The findings of the usability testing showed that most of the participants evaluated the system at a good level. The mean score for the specialists, general practitioners and nurses was 8.4±0.46, 7.7±0.39, and 7.5±0.51, respectively.Conclusion:Although it was the first time in the country that the teleburn system was designed and introduced to the clinicians, they seemed to be satisfied with using the system. This system could help general practitioners and nurses to receive specialist's advice on a timely manner to improve the treatment of the burn patients. However, more research should be conducted to determine the effectiveness of using this technology in the real work environment.

The most used questionnaires for evaluating telemedicine services

“…The final list of articles showed that the Telehealth Usability Questionnaire (TUQ) (n = 10, 19%) [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] and Telemedicine Satisfaction Questionnaire (TSQ) (n = 7, 13%) [20][21][22][23][24][25][26] were the most commonly used. Then, the Service User Technology Acceptability Questionnaire (SUTAQ) (n = 3, 5.5%) [27][28][29], the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ) (n = 3, 5.5%) [30][31][32], the Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction (QUIS) (n = 3, 5.5%) [33][34][35], the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire (n = 3, 5.5%) [36][37][38], the Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ) (n = 3, 5.5%) [22,39,40], the Telemedicine Satisfaction and Usefulness Questionnaire (TSUQ) (n = 2, 3.5%) [41,42], the Patient Assessment of Communication during Telemedicine (PACT) questionnaire (n = 2, 3.5%) [43,44], the Post Study System Usability Questionnaire (PSSUQ) (n = 2, 3.5%) [19,45] and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (n = 2, 3.5%) [46,47] were the most used questionnaires, respectively. The rest of the articles had used other questionnaires (n = 18, 34%)…”

Required Data Elements and Requirements of a Teleoncology System to Provide Treatment Plans for Patients with Breast Cancer

“…Furthermore, selection of a treatment plan for patients with breast cancer is based on many factors, including the extent and location of the tumor (number and extent of lymph node involvement, number of lesions, size and location of the primary tumor), as well as age, patient's general health status, and patient's preferences (33). Therefore, the required data elements for the telemedicine system were identified by investigating the clinical guidelines and reviewing the medical records of patients with breast In some studies, identifying required data elements for telemedicine systems has been performed by reviewing the literature and designing a researcher-made ques- Abbreviations: CT, computerized tomography; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; PET-Scan, positron emission tomography-scan; T-N-M, tumor-nodes-metastasis tionnaire for receiving the users' opinions (11,12,48,49). However, for identifying the required data elements, this study scrutinized the latest clinical guidelines related to breast cancer and reviewed the medical records of patients with breast cancer, who received different treatment plans.…”

Impact of Self Care Management Program on Improving Self Efficacy of Multiple Sclerosis Patients

“…Additionally, maintaining circumstances becomes more challenging and laborious due to the unexpected and complicated nature of the disease. Self-management is therefore crucial in the lives of MS sufferers (4) .…”