Kidney transplant recipient perspectives on telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic
Date
2021
Authors
Huuskes, B.M.
Scholes-Robertson, N.
Guha, C.
Baumgart, A.
Wong, G.
Kanellis, J.
Chadban, S.
Barraclough, K.A.
Viecelli, A.K.
Hawley, C.M.
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Advisors
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Type:
Journal article
Citation
Transplant International, 2021; 34(8):1517-1529
Statement of Responsibility
Brooke M Huuskes, Nicole Scholes-Robertson, Chandana Guha, Amanda Baumgart, Germaine Wong, John Kanellis ... et al.
Conference Name
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the delivery of health services. Telehealth allows delivery of care without in-person contacts and minimizes the risk of vial transmission. We aimed to describe the perspectives of kidney transplant recipients on the benefits, challenges, and risks of telehealth. We conducted five online focus groups with 34 kidney transplant recipients who had experienced a telehealth appointment. Transcripts were thematically analyzed. We identified five themes: minimizing burden (convenient and easy, efficiency of appointments, reducing exposure to risk, limiting work disruptions, and alleviating financial burden); attuning to individual context (depending on stability of health, respect patient choice of care, and ensuring a conducive environment); protecting personal connection and trust (requires established rapport with clinicians, hampering honest conversations, diminished attentiveness without incidental interactions, reassurance of follow-up, and missed opportunity to share lived experience); empowerment and readiness (increased responsibility for self-management, confidence in physical assessment, mental preparedness, and forced independence); navigating technical challenges (interrupted communication, new and daunting technologies, and cognizant of patient digital literacy). Telehealth is convenient and minimizes time, financial, and overall treatment burden. Telehealth should ideally be available after the pandemic, be provided by a trusted nephrologist and supported with resources to help patients prepare for appointments.
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ª 2021 The Authors. Transplant International published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Steunstichting ESOT 1517 This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoD erivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made