Impact of a fetal ultrasound and paediatric telemedicine service
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Impact of a fetal ultrasound and paediatric telemedicine service using cloud-based technology
IRAS ID
270325
Contact name
Vikki J Smith
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 22 days
Research summary
Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technologies to provide clinical health care at a distance, and has been shown in studies to successfully provide specialist fetal medicine services and children’s outpatient services. Ultrasound scanning is routinely used during pregnancy to identify babies who are ‘at risk’ because of a suspected fetal anomaly or because they are not growing well. When an ultrasonographer finds a problem, the usual care pathway is referral to the regional Fetal Medicine (FM) Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne for confirmation of the diagnosis, counselling and discussion of a management plan. For some parents this may involve up to six hours of travel time.
A videoconferencing telemedicine service was established in 2015, linking the obstetric ultrasound department at West Cumberland Hospital (WCH) with the FM unit at Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI), Newcastle upon Tyne. The proposed study aims to evaluate to the use of cloud-based technology (StarLeaf) to provide the existing service and the expansion of the service to include two more hospitals and a paediatric outpatient clinic within the North East and North Cumbria region, including a budget impact analysis (BIA) of service costs. This questionnaire and interview study will collect research data in the following ways:
a) All parents who have a telemedicine consultation will be invited to complete a questionnaire to assess their experience of the consultation and questions designed to collect socio-demographic data.
b) A sub-sample of parents will be invited to take part in a semi-structured interview to explore their experiences of a cloud-based telemedicine consultation.
c)A budget-impact analysis will be undertaken to inform decision makers about the financial implications of a fetal telemedicine ultrasound service.
d)A sample of healthcare staff will be asked to take part in semi-structured interviews to explore their experiences of taking part in telemedicine consultations.REC name
South Central - Oxford A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/SC/0074
Date of REC Opinion
12 Feb 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion