Optimising remote rheumatology experiences.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Building on experience from the COVID-19 pandemic to optimise remote consultations in rheumatology care - Defining the pathways for consultations
IRAS ID
304347
Contact name
Fiona Gillison
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bath
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 31 days
Research summary
The Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases (RNHRD) at the Royal United Hospital, Bath serves 14,000 rheumatology patients. During the COVID-19 pandemic around 90% of outpatient consultations were conducted by telephone, moving beyond the COVID-19 pandemic the target is to conduct 25% of outpatient consultations remotely. However currently little is known about what patients, in what circumstances require remote or face-to-face consultations. Therefore, this mixed methods study will investigate experiences of both remote and face-to-face consultations among rheumatology patients and staff in the RNHRD to help define the pathways for consultation choice. There will be three phases of data collection. The first phase will use validated questionnaires and patients’ medical records to collect health, demographic, socioeconomic and psychosocial data from patients and demographic and psychosocial data from staff. The second phase of the study will involve a survey of open questions designed to capture the acceptability of the consultation immediately after the experience. Patients and staff will complete different surveys. The patient survey will include questions about the format and outcome of the consultation, if they would have preferred a different format, what could have been better and why, and overall satisfaction with the consultation. The patient survey will also include questions about their condition and their use of the rheumatology advice line. We will collect information about patients use of the rheumatology advice line as a proxy measure of the efficacy of the consultation, for example did the consultation meet the needs of the patients’ or did they require further contact with service via the rheumatology advice line. Patients will complete the survey immediately following a consultation of any format. The staff survey will include questions about the disease status of the patient (i.e., stable, non-stable), the format of the consultation, satisfaction with the consultation, outcome of the consultation (i.e., remote consultation converted to a face-to-face, patient discharged etc) and whether in retrospect the consultation would have been better in an alternative format. The third phase of the study will involve in-depth semi structured interviews with a sub-set of both patients and staff to identify what makes consultations satisfactory, or unsatisfactory for both patients and staff. The data collected will then be combined and used to define how decision making could be informed in establishing a hybrid service. Such data could not only inform clinicians and administrators running outpatient clinics, but could also be used to inform machine learning/algorithms to predict what patients would best ‘fit’ a remote consultation and when.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Sheffield Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/YH/0240
Date of REC Opinion
12 Oct 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion