The Challenges of a Complex and Innovative Telehealth Project: A Qualitative Evaluation of the Eastern Quebec Telepathology Network

The effectiveness of tele-triage during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and narrative synthesis

BACKGROUND

Telehealth services were used by healthcare centers during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to identify and manage patients at the forefront of the healthcare system. As one of these technologies, tele-triage refers to the assessment of a patient's health status through telephone or another means of communication and recommending treatment or providing appropriate referrals in emergency rooms and primary care offices. This study aimed to perform a systematic review of the evidence on the effectiveness of tele-triage, as one of these technologies, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

Medline (via PubMed), Scopus, and Web of Science databases were searched for relevant English articles published since the pandemic's onset until December 30, 2021. Studies investigating the tele-triage's effect on patient safety, clinical outcomes, and patient satisfaction were included. Data on study characteristics, intervention characteristics, and their effects on study outcomes were extracted separately by two authors. A narrative synthesis of the included studies was ultimately performed.

RESULTS

Out of the 6312 retrieved studies, 14 met the inclusion criteria. The tele-triage intervention was offered by an algorithm-based system in eight studies (57.14%) and by healthcare providers in six other studies (42.86%) to determine the patient's level of care. According to the results, tele-triage interventions during COVID-19 can reduce unnecessary emergency room visits (by 1.2-22.2%), improve clinical outcomes after intervention (such as would closure in diabetic feet), reduce mortality and injuries, and ensure patient satisfaction with tele-triage (53-98%).

CONCLUSIONS

This study found that tele-triage interventions reduced unnecessary visits, improved clinical outcomes, reduced mortality, and injuries, increased patient satisfaction, reduced healthcare provider workload, improved access to primary care consultation, and increased patient safety and satisfaction. Therefore, tele-triage systems are not only suitable for providing acute and emergency care remotely but they are also recommended as an alternative tool to monitor and diagnose COVID-19.

Clinical applications of telemedicine services using a regional telemedicine platform for cancer treatment: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Telemedicine is beneficial for improving treatment efficiency and reducing medical expenses of cancer patients. This study focuses on cancer patients participating in teleconsultations through a regional telemedicine platform in China, analyzes the consultation process, and provides references for the clinical application of telemedicine.

METHODS

We collected information on teleconsultations of cancer patients conducted from 2015 to 2022 through the regional telemedicine platform. Utilizing SPSS 23.0 software, we conducted descriptive analysis to summarize the distribution of patient gender, age, region, and disease types. The ordinal logistic regression analysis was adopted to analyze the factors influencing the waiting time and consultation duration for teleconsultations.

RESULTS

From 2015 to 2022, a total of 23,060 teleconsultations were conducted for cancer patients via regional telemedicine platform, with an average growth rate of 11.09%. The main types of consultations were for lung cancer, liver cancer, and breast cancer, accounting for 18.14%, 10.49%, and 9.46% respectively. 57.05% of teleconsultations had a waiting time of less than 24 h, while patient age, consultation expert level, and disease type were the main factors influencing the waiting time. 50.06% of teleconsultations had a duration of more than 20 min, and the inviting hospital level and the title of invited consultant were the main factors influencing the consultation duration.

CONCLUSIONS

In China, telemedicine has been widely employed in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of cancers, covering various types of oncological diseases. However, the waiting time for teleconsultations was generally more than 12 h, indicating the need to enhance consultation scheduling and allocate more expert resources to further optimize the efficiency of teleconsultations. Additionally, further exploration is required for remote health management of outpatients with cancers outside the hospital.

Understanding the integration of artificial intelligence in healthcare organisations and systems through the NASSS framework: a qualitative study in a leading Canadian academic centre

BACKGROUND

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are expected to "revolutionise" healthcare. However, despite their promises, their integration within healthcare organisations and systems remains limited. The objective of this study is to explore and understand the systemic challenges and implications of their integration in a leading Canadian academic hospital.

METHODS

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 29 stakeholders concerned by the integration of a large set of AI technologies within the organisation (e.g., managers, clinicians, researchers, patients, technology providers). Data were collected and analysed using the Non-Adoption, Abandonment, Scale-up, Spread, Sustainability (NASSS) framework.

RESULTS

Among enabling factors and conditions, our findings highlight: a supportive organisational culture and leadership leading to a coherent organisational innovation narrative; mutual trust and transparent communication between senior management and frontline teams; the presence of champions, translators, and boundary spanners for AI able to build bridges and trust; and the capacity to attract technical and clinical talents and expertise. Constraints and barriers include: contrasting definitions of the value of AI technologies and ways to measure such value; lack of real-life and context-based evidence; varying patients' digital and health literacy capacities; misalignments between organisational dynamics, clinical and administrative processes, infrastructures, and AI technologies; lack of funding mechanisms covering the implementation, adaptation, and expertise required; challenges arising from practice change, new expertise development, and professional identities; lack of official professional, reimbursement, and insurance guidelines; lack of pre- and post-market approval legal and governance frameworks; diversity of the business and financing models for AI technologies; and misalignments between investors' priorities and the needs and expectations of healthcare organisations and systems.

CONCLUSION

Thanks to the multidimensional NASSS framework, this study provides original insights and a detailed learning base for analysing AI technologies in healthcare from a thorough socio-technical perspective. Our findings highlight the importance of considering the complexity characterising healthcare organisations and systems in current efforts to introduce AI technologies within clinical routines. This study adds to the existing literature and can inform decision-making towards a judicious, responsible, and sustainable integration of these technologies in healthcare organisations and systems.

A scoping review and intersectionality-based analysis of heart failure telehealth interventions for vulnerable populations

AIMS

To map the existing body of heart failure (HF) telehealth interventions for vulnerable populations, and to conduct an intersectionality-based analysis utilizing a structured checklist.

DESIGN

A scoping review and intersectionality-based analysis.

DATA SOURCES

The search was conducted in March 2022 in the following databases: MEDLINE, CINAHL, Scopus and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

REVIEW METHODS

First, the titles and abstracts were screened, and then the entire articles were screened against the inclusion criteria. Two of the investigators screened the articles independently in Covidence. The studies included and excluded at various stages of screening were depicted through a PRISMA flow diagram. The quality of the included studies was assessed based on the mixed methods appraisal tool (MMAT). Each study was read thoroughly and the intersectionality-based checklist by Ghasemi et al. (2021) was applied, whereby a yes/no response was marked for each question on the checklist and the relevant supporting data were extracted.

RESULTS

A total of 22 studies were included in this review. About 42.2% of the responses indicated that studies incorporated the principles of intersectionality at the 'problem identification' stage, followed by 42.9% and 29.44% responses indicating incorporation of these principles at the 'design and implementation' and 'evaluation' stages respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that the research around HF telehealth interventions for vulnerable populations is not adequately grounded in appropriate theoretical underpinning. The principles of intersectionality have been applied mostly to the problem identification and the intervention development and implementation stages, and not so much at the evaluation stage. Future research must fill the identified gaps in this area of research.

NO PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

Since this was a scoping, there was no patient contribution to this work; however, based on this study's findings, we are undertaking patient-centred studies with patient contribution.

Health Service Implementation and Antifragile Characteristics in Rural Communities: A Dirt Research Approach

The implementation of health and care services within rural communities requires necessary sensitivity to the unique facets of rural places. Often, rural service implementation is executed with inappropriate frameworks based on assumptions derived from urban centres. To understand the characteristics of rural communities that can facilitate successful program implementation better, ethnographic accounts of rural health and care services were compiled in rural communities within Canada, Australia, and Iceland. Ethnographic accounts are presented in the first and third person, with an accompanying reflexive analysis immediately following these accounts. Antifragility was the guiding concept of interest when investigating rural implementation environments, a concept that posits that a system can gain stability from uncertainty rather than lose integrity. These ethnographic accounts provide evidence of antifragile operators such as optionality, hybrid leadership, starting small, nonlinear evaluation, and avoiding suboptimisation. It is shown that the integration of these antifragile operators allows programs to function better in complex rural systems. Further, the presence of capable individuals with sufficient knowledge in several disciplines and with depth in a single discipline allows for innovative local thinking initiatives.

TRIPLE C reporting principles for case study evaluations of the role of context in complex interventions

BACKGROUND

Guidance and reporting principles such as CONSORT (for randomised trials) and PRISMA (for systematic reviews) have greatly improved the reporting, discoverability, transparency and consistency of published research. We sought to develop similar guidance for case study evaluations undertaken to explore the influence of context on the processes and outcomes of complex interventions.

METHODS

A range of experts were recruited to an online Delphi panel, sampling for maximum diversity in disciplines (e.g. public health, health services research, organisational studies), settings (e.g. country), and sectors (e.g. academic, policy, third sector). To inform panel deliberations, we prepared background materials based on: [a] a systematic meta-narrative review of empirical and methodological literatures on case study, context and complex interventions; [b] the collective experience of a network of health systems and public health researchers; and [c] the established RAMESES II standards (which cover one kind of case study). We developed a list of topics and issues based on these sources and encouraged panel members to provide free text comments. Their feedback informed development of a set of items in the form of questions for potential inclusion in the reporting principles. We circulated these by email, asking panel members to rank each potential item twice (for relevance and validity) on a 7-point Likert scale. This sequence was repeated twice.

RESULTS

We recruited 51 panel members from 50 organisations across 12 countries, who brought experience of a range of case study research methods and applications. 26 completed all three Delphi rounds, reaching over 80% consensus on 16 items covering title, abstract, definitions of terms, philosophical assumptions, research question(s), rationale, how context and complexity relates to the intervention, ethical approval, empirical methods, findings, use of theory, generalisability and transferability, researcher perspective and influence, conclusions and recommendations, and funding and conflicts of interest.

CONCLUSION

The 'Triple C' (Case study, Context, Complex interventions) reporting principles recognise that case studies are undertaken in different ways for different purposes and based on different philosophical assumptions. They are designed to be enabling rather than prescriptive, and to make case study evaluation reporting on context and complex health interventions more comprehensive, accessible and useable.

The 'wrong pocket' problem as a barrier to the integration of telehealth in health organisations and systems

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the deployment of telehealth services in many countries around the world. It also revealed many barriers and challenges to the use of digital health technologies in health organisations and systems that have persisted for decades. One of these barriers is what is known as the 'wrong pocket' problem - where an organisation or sector makes expenditures and investments to address a given problem, but the benefits (return on investment) are captured by another organisation or sector (the wrong pocket). This problem is the origin of many difficulties in public policies and programmes (e.g. education, environment, justice and public health), especially in terms of sustainability and scaling-up of technology and innovation. In this essay/perspective, we address the wrong pocket problem in the context of a major telehealth project in Canada. We show how the problem of sharing investments and expenses, as well as the redistribution of economies among the different stakeholders involved, may have threatened the sustainability and scaling-up of this project, even though it has demonstrated the clinical utility and contributed to improving the health of populations. In conclusion, the wrong pocket problem may be decisive in the reduced take-up, and potential failure, of certain telehealth programmes and policies. It is not enough for a telehealth service to be clinically relevant and 'efficient', it must also be mutually beneficial to the various stakeholders involved, particularly in terms of the equitable sharing of costs and benefits (return on investment) associated with the implementation of this new service model. Finally, the wrong pocket concept offers a helpful lens for studying the success, sustainability, and scale-up of digital transformations in health organisations and systems. This needs to be considered in future research and evaluations in the field.

Digital Pathology and Artificial Intelligence Applications in Pathology

Digital pathology is revolutionizing pathology. The introduction of digital pathology made it possible to comprehensively change the pathology diagnosis workflow, apply and develop pathological artificial intelligence (AI) models, generate pathological big data, and perform telepathology. AI algorithms, including machine learning and deep learning, are used for the detection, segmentation, registration, processing, and classification of digitized pathological images. Pathological AI algorithms can be helpfully utilized for diagnostic screening, morphometric analysis of biomarkers, the discovery of new meanings of prognosis and therapeutic response in pathological images, and improvement of diagnostic efficiency. In order to develop a successful pathological AI model, it is necessary to consider the selection of a suitable type of image for a subject, utilization of big data repositories, the setting of an effective annotation strategy, image standardization, and color normalization. This review will elaborate on the advantages and perspectives of digital pathology, AI-based approaches, the applications in pathology, and considerations and challenges in the development of pathological AI models.

What a Pandemic Has Taught Us About the Potential for Innovation in Rural Health: Commencing an Ethnography in Canada, the United States, Sweden, and Australia

The COVID-19 pandemic coincided with a multi-national federally funded research project examining the potential for health and care services in small rural areas to identify and implement innovations in service delivery. The project has a strong focus on electronic health (eHealth) but covers other areas of innovation as well. The project has been designed as an ethnography to prelude a realist evaluation, asking the question under what conditions can local health and care services take responsibility for designing and implementing new service models that meet local needs? The project had already engaged with several health care practitioners and research students based in Canada, Sweden, Australia, and the United States. Our attention is particularly on rural communities with fewer than 5,000 residents and which are relatively isolated from larger service centres. Between March and September 2020, the project team undertook ethnographic and auto-ethnographic research in their own communities to investigate what the service model responses to the pandemic were, and the extent to which local service managers were able to customize their responses to suit the needs of their communities. An initial program theory drawn from the extant literature suggested that “successful” response to the pandemic would depend on a level of local autonomy, “absorptive capacity,^*” strong service-community connections, an “anti-fragile^†” approach to implementing change, and a realistic recognition of the historical barriers to implementing eHealth and other innovations in these types of rural communities. The field research in 2020 has refined the theory by focusing even more attention on absorptive capacity and community connections, and by suggesting that some level of ignorance of the barriers to innovation may be beneficial. The research also emphasized the role and power of external actors to the community which had not been well-explored in the literature. This paper will summarize both what the field research revealed about the capacity to respond well to the COVID-19 challenge and highlight the gaps in innovative strategies at a managerial level required for rapid response to system stress.

^*Absorptive Capacity is defined as the ability of an organization (community, clinic, hospital) to adapt to change. Organizations with flexible capacity can incorporate change in a productive fashion, while those with rigid capacity take longer to adapt, and may do so inappropriately.

^†Antifragility is defined as an entities' ability to gain stability through stress. Biological examples include building muscle through consistent use, and bones becoming stronger through subtle stress. Antifragility has been used as a guiding principle in programme implementation in the past.

A “Not So Quiet” Revolution: Systemic Benefits and Challenges of Telehealth in the Context of COVID-19 in Quebec (Canada)

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on health and social service systems (HSSS) worldwide. It has put tremendous pressure on these systems, threatening access, continuity, and the quality of patient care and services. In Quebec (Canada), the delivery of care and services has radically changed in a short period of time. During the pandemic, telehealth has been widely deployed and used, notwithstanding the decades-long challenges of integrating this service modality into the Quebec HSSS. Adopting a narrative-integrative approach, this article describes and discusses Quebec's experience with the deployment and utilization of telehealth in the context of COVID-19. Firstly, we introduced the achievements and benefits made with the use of telehealth. Secondly, we discussed the challenges and concerns that were revealed or accentuated by the sanitary crisis, such as: (1) training and information; (2) professional and organizational issues; (3) quality of services and patient satisfaction; (4) cost, remuneration, and funding; (5) technology and infrastructure; (6) the emergence of private telehealth platforms in a public HSSS; (7) digital divide and equity; and (8) legal and regulatory issues. Finally, the article presents recommendations to guide future research, policies and actions for a successful integration of telehealth in the Quebec HSSS as well as in jurisdictions and countries facing comparable challenges.

Diagnostic digital pathology implementation: Learning from the digital health experience

Digital Pathology (also referred to as Telepathology and Whole Slide Imaging) is the process of producing high resolution digital images from tissue sections on glass slides. These glass slides are normally examined under a microscope by a pathologist as part of the diagnostic process. The emergence of digital pathology now means that digital images are stored on secure servers and can be viewed on computer monitors; enabling pathologists to work remotely and to collaborate with other colleagues when second opinions are needed. The implementation of digital pathology into clinical practice has many potential benefits. Although this has been long recognised, its adoption as a diagnostic tool remains low and pathologists’ projections about its future deployment are cautious. Notable early digital pathology adopters have led the way. The challenge now is to scale-up digital pathology beyond the relatively few large networks and centres of excellence. Many other areas of healthcare have accumulated experience about optimising approaches to digital health/healthcare technology deployment and sustainability. This has been done in a multi-disciplinary context and has applied theoretical/conceptual frameworks. Thus far there has been little use of similar frameworks in the planning of digital pathology deployment in clinical practice. In this essay, I will explore the scope of digital pathology implementation approaches that have been deployed in clinical practice and examine what can be learned from the wider healthcare experience of adopting, scaling-up and sustaining innovative healthcare solutions.

How Can Health Systems Better Prepare for the Next Pandemic? Lessons Learned From the Management of COVID-19 in Quebec (Canada)

The magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic challenged societies around our globalized world. To contain the spread of the virus, unprecedented and drastic measures and policies were put in place by governments to manage an exceptional health care situation while maintaining other essential services. The responses of many governments showed a lack of preparedness to face this systemic and global health crisis. Drawing on field observations and available data on the first wave of the pandemic (mid-March to mid-May 2020) in Quebec (Canada), this article reviewed and discussed the successes and failures that characterized the management of COVID-19 in this province. Using the framework of Palagyi et al. on system preparedness toward emerging infectious diseases, we described and analyzed in a chronologically and narratively way: (1) how surveillance was structured; (2) how workforce issues were managed; (3) what infrastructures and medical supplies were made available; (4) what communication mechanisms were put in place; (5) what form of governance emerged; and (6) whether trust was established and maintained throughout the crisis. Our findings and observations stress that resilience and ability to adequately respond to a systemic and global crisis depend upon preexisting system-level characteristics and capacities at both the provincial and federal governance levels. By providing recommendations for policy and practice from a learning health system perspective, this paper contributes to the groundwork required for interdisciplinary research and genuine policy discussions to help health systems better prepare for future pandemics.

Digital Pathology: Advantages, Limitations and Emerging Perspectives

Digital pathology is on the verge of becoming a mainstream option for routine diagnostics. Faster whole slide image scanning has paved the way for this development, but implementation on a large scale is challenging on technical, logistical, and financial levels. Comparative studies have published reassuring data on safety and feasibility, but implementation experiences highlight the need for training and the knowledge of pitfalls. Up to half of the pathologists are reluctant to sign out reports on only digital slides and are concerned about reporting without the tool that has represented their profession since its beginning. Guidelines by international pathology organizations aim to safeguard histology in the digital realm, from image acquisition over the setup of work-stations to long-term image archiving, but must be considered a starting point only. Cost-efficiency analyses and occupational health issues need to be addressed comprehensively. Image analysis is blended into the traditional work-flow, and the approval of artificial intelligence for routine diagnostics starts to challenge human evaluation as the gold standard. Here we discuss experiences from past digital pathology implementations, future possibilities through the addition of artificial intelligence, technical and occupational health challenges, and possible changes to the pathologist's profession.

[Strategic framework to Support the evaluation of complex and innovative digital health projects]

Digital technologies play a central role in strategies to improve access, quality and efficiency of health care and services. However, many digital health projects have failed to become sustainable and spread across health organizations and systems. This situation is partly due to the fact that these projects are often developed and evaluated by reducing the issues linked mainly to the technological dimension. Such tradition has paid little attention to the fact that technology is introduced into pluralistic and complex sociotechnical systems such as health organizations and systems. The aim of this article is to propose practical and theorical, non-prescriptive, elements of reflection that can serve as a basis for evaluating complex and innovative digital health projects. This reflection builds on the lessons learned from the application of a strategic framework for evaluating three major complex and innovative digital health projects in Quebec over the last 15 years.

Clinicians' experience of providing care: a rapid review

BACKGROUND

Health care services internationally are refocussing care delivery towards patient centred, integrated care that utilises effective, efficient and innovative models of care to optimise patient outcomes and system sustainability. Whilst significant efforts have been made to examine and enhance patient experience, to date little has progressed in relation to provider experience. This review aims to explore this knowledge gap by capturing evidence of clinician experience, and how this experience is defined and measured in the context of health system change and innovation.

METHODS

A rapid review of published and grey literature review was conducted utilising a rapid evidence assessment methodology. Seventy-nine studies retrieved from the literature were included in the review. Fourteen articles were identified from the grey literature search and one article obtained via hand searching. In total, 94 articles were included in the review. This study was commissioned by and co-designed with the New South Wales, Ministry of Health.

RESULTS

Clinician experience of delivering health care is inconsistently defined in the literature, with identified articles lacking clarity regarding distinctions between experience, engagement and work-related outcomes such as job satisfaction. Clinician experience was commonly explored using qualitative research that focused on experiences of discrete health care activities or events in which a change was occurring. Such research enabled exploration of complex experiences. In these contexts, clinician experience was captured in terms of self-reported information that clinicians provided about the health care activity or event, their perceptions of its value, the lived impacts they experienced, and the specific behaviours they displayed in relation to the activity or event. Moreover, clinician's experience has been identified to have a paucity of measurement tools.

CONCLUSION

Literature to date has not examined clinician experience in a holistic sense. In order to achieve the goals identified in relation to value-based care, further work is needed to conceptualise clinician experience and understand the nature of measurement tools required to assess this. In health system application, a broader 'clinician pulse' style assessment may be valuable to understand the experience of clinical work on a continuum rather than in the context of episodes of change/care.

[Beyond benefit evaluation: Considering the unintended consequences of telehealth]

La télésanté est considérée comme un levier incontournable dans les choix des politiques en santé. Toutefois, il subsiste de nombreux enjeux face à son intégration réussie dans les pratiques cliniques. À ce jour, un grand nombre d’initiatives en télésanté peine à dépasser le stade de projet pilote. Cette situation s’explique en partie par une culture de l’innovation qui est principalement focalisée sur les bénéfices attendus de la technologie et moins sur les changements et les transformations qu’elle peut entraîner. La télésanté est utilisée dans des établissements de santé dont la dynamique sociale est pour le moins complexe. Son introduction entraîne des conséquences inattendues pouvant affecter aussi bien les patients, les communautés, les professionnels, les établissements que les systèmes de santé et la société dans son ensemble. L’objectif de cet article est de discuter de certaines des conséquences inattendues découlant de l’utilisation de la télésanté dans les établissements et systèmes de santé.

Using Qualitative Research to Study the Profession of Rural Surgery

This is a systematic review of original research articles that use qualitative methods to investigate rural surgery over the last decade (2010-2019). This review found that interviews and focus groups were common, most often engaging with patients and health care professionals. Thematic analysis and grounded theory were data analysis methods most frequently used among these qualitative rural surgery studies. Studies in this review often pertained to obstetrics or the provision of other other surgical services. Areas for future qualitative research on rural surgery are surgical teamwork, scope of practice, workforce shortages, and issues related to the aging rural patient.

Designing a novel hybrid healthcare teleconsultation network: a benchtop study of telepathology in Iran and a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Growing demand for medical services has increased patient waiting time due to the limited number or unbalanced distribution of healthcare centers. Healthcare teleconsultation networks are one of the potentially powerful systems to overcome this problem. Medical pathology can hugely benefit from teleconsultation networks because having second opinions is precious for many cases; however, resource planning (i.e., assignment and distribution of pathology consultation requests) is challenging due to bulky medical images of patients. This results in high setup and operational costs. The aim of this study is to design an optimal teleconsultation network for pathology labs under the supervision of medical sciences universities in Tehran, Iran.

METHODS

To avoid the setup cost, we first propose a modified hybrid peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay architecture for our telepathology network, using Iran's National Healthcare Information Network (SHAMS) as the underlying infrastructure. Then we apply optimization techniques to solve the request assignment and distribution problems in the network. Finally, we present a novel mathematical model with the objective of minimizing the variable operational costs of the system.

RESULTS

The efficiency of the proposed method was evaluated by a set of practical-sized network instances simulated based on the characteristics of SHAMS. The results show that the presented model and architecture can obtain optimal solutions for network instances up to 350 nodes, which covers our target network.

CONCLUSIONS

We believe that the proposed method can be beneficial for designing large-scale medical teleconsultation networks by adjusting the constraints according to the rules and conditions of each country. Our findings showed that teleconsultation networks in countries with strong information technology (IT) infrastructures are under the influence of consultation fees, while in countries with weak IT infrastructure, the transmission costs are more critical. To the best of our knowledge, no research has so far addressed resource planning in medical teleconsultation networks using optimization techniques. Besides, the target network, i.e., pathology labs under the supervision of medical sciences universities in Tehran and the SHAMS network, are discussed for the first time in this work.

Rethinking the electronic health record through the quadruple aim: time to align its value with the health system

Electronic health records (EHRs) are considered as a powerful lever for enabling value-based health systems. However, many challenges to their use persist and some of their unintended negative impacts are increasingly well documented, including the deterioration of work conditions and quality, and increased dissatisfaction of health care providers. The “quadruple aim” consists of improving population health as well as patient and provider experience while reducing costs. Based on this approach, improving the quality of work and well-being of health care providers could help rethinking the implementation of EHRs and also other information technology-based tools and systems, while creating more value for patients, organizations and health systems.

The California Telepathology Service: UCLA's Experience in Deploying a Regional Digital Pathology Subspecialty Consultation Network

Background:

The need for extending pathology diagnostic expertise to more areas is now being met by the maturation of technology that can effectively deliver this level of care. The experience and lessons learned from our successfully deployed International Telepathology Service (ITS) to a hospital system in China guided us in starting a domestic telepathology network, the California Telepathology Service (CTS). Many of the lessons learned from the ITS project informed our decision-making for the CTS. New challenges were recognized and overcome, such as addressing the complexity and cost–benefit tradeoffs involved in setting up a digital consultation system that competes with an established conventional glass slide delivery system.

Methods:

The CTS is based on a hub-and-spoke telepathology network using Leica Biosystems whole-slide image scanners and the eSlide Manager (eSM Version 12.3.3.7055, Leica Biosystems) digital image management software solution. The service currently comprises six spoke sites (UC San Diego [UCSD], UC Irvine [UCI], UC Davis, Northridge Hospital Medical Center [NHMC], Olive View Medical Center [OVMC], and Children's Hospital Los Angeles) and one central hub site (UCLA Medical Center). So far, five sites have been validated for telepathology case consultations following established practice guidelines, and four sites (UCI, UCSD, NHMC, and OVMC) have activated the service.

Results:

For the active spoke sites, we reviewed the volume, turnaround time (TAT), and case types and evaluated for utility and value. From May 2017 to July 2018, a total of 165 cases were submitted. Of note, digital consultations were particularly advantageous for preliminary kidney biopsy diagnoses (avg TAT 0.7 day).

Conclusion:

For spoke sites, telepathology provided shortened TAT and significant financial savings over hiring faculty with expertise to support a potentially low-volume service. For the hub site, the value includes exposure to educationally valuable cases, additional caseload volume to support specialized services, and improved communication with referring facilities over traditional carrier mail. The creation of a hub-and-spoke telepathology network is an expensive undertaking, and careful consideration needs to be given to support the needs of the clinical services, acquisition and effective deployment of the appropriate equipment, network requirements, and laboratory workflows to ensure a successful and cost-effective system.

[Organizational and systemic conditions of citizen-patient involvement in the development of telehealth in Quebec]

OBJECTIVES

Involving citizens-patients in decisions regarding telehealth services could allow a better match between the services offered and the needs and contexts of individuals and communities. This study aims to explore the organizational and systemic conditions that can influence citizen-patient involvement in the development of telehealth in Quebec.

METHODS

A qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with 29 key informants was conducted. A deductive-inductive thematic analysis was performed based on an integrative framework derived from diffusion of innovation theories.

RESULTS

Citizen-patient involvement in the development of telehealth remains dependent on many organizational and systemic conditions. At the organizational level, it could affect the dynamics, process, cultures, rules and operations in organizations; hence the needs for adequate human and material resources as well as the availability of support for change. At the systemic level, the ideology, the sociopolitical context and the decisions in favor (or not) of a citizen appropriation of the decision-making are central. Concerns about scientific evidence, training, as well as the roles of professional federations, and citizen-patient groups have also emerged. Organizational and systemic levels are interdependent.

CONCLUSION

The organizational and systemic contexts may explain part of the contrast between the discourse in favor of citizen-patient involvement in telehealth decision-making and the reality observed in Quebec. This study provides a basis for analyzing citizen-patient involvement in services development from the perspective of organizational and systemic changes.

Some Multidimensional Unintended Consequences of Telehealth Utilization: A Multi-Project Evaluation Synthesis

Background: Telehealth initiatives have bloomed around the globe, but their integration and diffusion remain challenging because of the complex issues they raise. Available evidence around telehealth usually deals with its expected effects and benefits, but its unintended consequences (UCs) and influencing factors are little documented. This study aims to explore, describe and analyze multidimensional UCs that have been associated with the use of telehealth.

Methods: We performed a secondary analysis of the evaluations of 10 telehealth projects conducted over a 22-year period in the province of Quebec (Canada). All material was subjected to a qualitative thematic-pragmatic content analysis with triangulation of methodologies and data sources. We used the conceptual model of the UCs of health information technologies proposed by Bloomrosen et al to structure our analysis.

Results: Four major findings emerged from our analysis. First, telehealth utilization requires many adjustments, changes and negotiations often underestimated in the planning and initial phases of the projects. Second, telehealth may result in the emergence of new services corridors that disturb existing ones and involve several adjustments for organizations, such as additional investments and resources, but also the risk of fragmentation of services and the need to balance between standardization of practices and local innovation. Third, telehealth may accentuate power relations between stakeholders. Fourth, it may lead to significant changes in the responsibilities of each actor in the supply chain of services. Finally, current legislative and regulatory frameworks appear ill-adapted to many of the new realities brought by telehealth.

Conclusion: This study provides a first attempt for an overview of the UCs associated with the use of telehealth. Future research-evaluation studies should be more sensitive to the multidimensional and interdependent factors that influence telehealth implementation and utilization as well as its impacts, intended or unintended, at all levels. Thus, a consideration of potential UCs should inform telehealth projects, from their planning until their scaling-up.

Exploring factors associated with the uneven utilization of telemedicine in Norway: a mixed methods study

BACKGROUND

Norway has a long history of using telemedicine, especially for geographical reasons. Despite the availability of promising telemedicine applications and the implementation of national initiatives and policies, the sustainability and scaling-up of telemedicine in the health system is still far from accomplished. The main objective of this study was to explore and identify the multi-level (micro, meso and macro) factors affecting telemedicine utilization in Norway.

METHODS

We used a mixed methods approach. Data from a national registry were collected to analyze the use of outpatient visits and telemedicine contacts in Norway from 2009 to 2015. Interviews with key stakeholders at national, regional and local level helped complete and contextualize the data analysis and explore the main issues affecting the use of telemedicine by health authorities and hospitals. Relevant national documents were also used to support, contradict, contextualize or clarify information and data.

RESULTS

Telemedicine use in Norway from 2009 to 2015 remained very low, not exceeding 0.5% of total outpatient activity at regional level and 0.1% at national level. All four regions used telemedicine. Of the 29 hospitals, 24 used it at least once over the 7-year period. Telemedicine was not used regularly everywhere, with some hospitals using it sporadically. Telemedicine was mostly used in selected specialties, including rehabilitation, neurosurgery, skin and venereal diseases. Three major themes affecting implementation and utilization of telemedicine in Norway emerged: (i) governance and strategy; (ii) organizational and professional dimensions; (iii) economic and financial dimensions. For each theme, a number of factors and challenges faced at different health care levels were identified.

CONCLUSIONS

This study allowed shedding light on multi-level and interdependent factors affecting utilization of telemedicine in Norway. The identification of the main implementation and utilization challenges might support decision makers and practitioners in the successful scaling-up of telemedicine. This work provides a knowledge base useful to other countries which intend to implement telemedicine or other digital health services into their healthcare systems.