Telehealth for immunosuppressed patients V1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Telehealth to facilitate group psychosocial support for immunosuppressed patients
IRAS ID
184370
Contact name
Rachel Rahman
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 1 days
Research summary
Cancer patients receiving chemotherapy face a rigorous regime of treatment cycles typically lasting a number of months. During this period the immune system is considerably compromised. In addition, the side effects of treatment, such as tiredness and nausea, can limit a patient’s ability to socialise and engage fully in daily activities. Considerable value is placed on peer and psychosocial support during this challenging time. However effectively disseminating traditional group psychosocial support services to individuals with compromised immunity is inadvisable as group activities increase the risk of infection.
Research has demonstrated the cost effectiveness and psychological benefits of telehealth for monitoring patient symptoms, imparting educational information and providing psychosocial support with research demonstrating the effectiveness of telehealth for supporting psychological outcomes including quality of life. However, limited research has explored how effectively telehealth can be used to connect multiple patients from their own homes to a professional psychotherapist in order to engage in group psychosocial support. Previous research conducted in Canada explored tele-health for supporting distance art groups with promising results; however this research focused on developing guidelines to facilitate distance learning art groups as opposed to considering the patient and therapist experience, engagement and barriers.
The aim of this research is to trial an innovative service which provides chemotherapy patients with telehealth video conferencing software in their homes in order to link to 8 weeks of group art therapy session delivered from Bronglais General Hospital. The research will use qualitative interviews with patients and a psychotherapist at 3 time points to explore experiences of using telehealth to facilitate group art therapy. With patient consent art therapy sessions will also be recorded to explore how group interactions are negotiated when engaging in group psychosocial support, and how our understanding of them enhance telehealth communications.REC name
Wales REC 7
REC reference
15/WA/0313
Date of REC Opinion
1 Sep 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion