Telemedicine treatment of patients with mental disorders during and after the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Germany - an observational study on feasibility and patient satisfaction

Factors Associated with Device, Internet and Videoconferencing Use Amongst Individuals with Moderate-to-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

Videoconferencing (VC) has the potential to improve access to quality healthcare for individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) who require intensive and ongoing rehabilitation post-injury. Gaps in information and communication technology (ICT) use, access, and skills, however, may undermine equitable participation in remotely delivered healthcare and rehabilitation. This cross-sectional study sought to identify which demographic, injury-related, and psychological factors are associated with gaps in digital inclusion amongst individuals with a TBI. Between March 2020 and December 2023, 186 adults with a moderate-to-severe TBI who were aged 18-65 years and were within five years post-injury completed a range of self-report measures. The results demonstrated that most individuals with a moderate-to-severe TBI reported high levels of technology skills and access and used the internet from multiple devices daily. While injury severity was unrelated to technology use, this finding may reflect an overestimation of technology use amongst individuals with the most severe injuries, who were excluded from the study. Several demographic and psychological factors were found to predict VC readiness and are presented within a model to guide clinicians considering client suitability for VC rehabilitation. The current findings indicate that the use of VC in clinical settings following a moderate-to-severe TBI is feasible and suggest that individuals with a TBI may benefit from the greater provision of remotely delivered healthcare than is currently offered.

British Congenital Cardiac Association Fetal Cardiology Standards: impact of Patient and Public involvement exercise on the development of clinical standards

OBJECTIVE

To examine the impact of a Patient and Public Involvement exercise on the development of British Congenital Cardiac Association Fetal Cardiology Standards 2021.

DESIGN

Open-ended, semi-structured interviews were undertaken to inform the design of a study to improve the quality of parents' experiences during antenatal and perinatal care of their child with CHD. This Patient and Public Involvement exercise was used to inform the final version of the drafted 'Standards'.

SETTING

One-on-one interviews with parents who responded to a request on the closed Facebook page of the user group "Little Hearts Matter": "Would you be interested in helping us to design a study about parents' experience on learning that their child had CHD"?

PATIENTS

Parents of children with single ventricle CHD.

RESULTS

Twenty-one parents (18 mothers, 3 fathers) participated. Parents responses were reported to have variably reinforced, augmented, and added specificity in the later stages of drafting to six of the seven subsections of Section C Information and Support for Parents including: "At the time of the Scan"; "Counselling following the identification of an abnormality"; "Written information/resources"; "Parent support"; "Communication with other teams and ongoing care"; and "Bereavement support".

CONCLUSIONS

This Patient and Public Involvement exercise successfully informed the development of Standards after the initial drafting. It contributed to the establishment of face validity of the 'Standards', especially when consistent with what is reported in the literature. Further research is needed to explore approaches to involving and standardising Patient and Public Involvement in the development of clinical standards.