Maar M A, Seymour A, Sanderson B, Boesch L
Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Ontario, Canada.
Rural Remote Health. 2010 Jan-Mar;10(1):1299. Epub 2010 Jan 27.
In Canada, telehealth has been successfully implemented in a number of Aboriginal communities with subsequent improvements to access to health care and quality of life. However, there are many knowledge gaps that limit our understanding of the broad range of Aboriginal e-health issues; a research agenda is urgently required. The objective of this research was to develop an Aboriginal e-health research agenda designed to address the substantial knowledge gaps that impede e-health deployment and adoption particularly in rural and remote Aboriginal communities in Canada. A consensus method based on Aboriginal culture, values and approaches to consensus was developed to achieve this.
In this consensus methodology, a core group of Aboriginal telehealth leaders, led by a research facilitator, engaged in an iterative process of individual and group review of research data. The reviewed data included stakeholder interview data, questionnaires, literature and other resources and was prioritized in order to develop recommendations for an Aboriginal e-health research agenda.
A total of 40 stakeholders including Aboriginal Telehealth Knowledge Circle (ATKC) members, communities of practice and regional, provincial and federal leaders and policy-makers participated in the consensus process. The research recommendations showed a high degree of consistency among stakeholders. Participants reached consensus on 6 areas: research ethics, internet-based e-health services data, educational resources, sustainability models, best practices and exploration of innovative applications.
An ATKC consensus process was successfully applied to reach consensus on an Aboriginal e-health research agenda, demonstrating the potential of Indigenous research approaches for defining levels of agreement on complex topics. The resulting conceptual map for e-health research can be used as a springboard for partnership-based research initiatives involving Aboriginal communities, governments and researchers, and may be of interest to Indigenous e-health researchers at an international level.
在加拿大，远程医疗已在多个原住民社区成功实施，随后在获得医疗保健和生活质量方面有所改善。然而，存在许多知识空白限制了我们对广泛的原住民电子健康问题的理解；迫切需要一个研究议程。本研究的目的是制定一项原住民电子健康研究议程，以解决阻碍电子健康部署和采用的重大知识空白，特别是在加拿大农村和偏远的原住民社区。为此，开发了一种基于原住民文化、价值观和共识达成方法的共识方法。
在这种共识方法中，由一名研究协调员领导的一组原住民远程医疗核心领导者参与了对研究数据进行个人和小组审查的迭代过程。审查的数据包括利益相关者访谈数据、问卷、文献和其他资源，并进行了优先排序，以便为原住民电子健康研究议程制定建议。
共有40名利益相关者参与了共识过程，包括原住民远程医疗知识圈（ATKC）成员、实践社区以及地区、省和联邦的领导人和政策制定者。研究建议在利益相关者之间表现出高度的一致性。参与者在6个领域达成了共识：研究伦理、基于互联网的电子健康服务数据、教育资源、可持续性模式、最佳实践以及创新应用探索。
ATKC共识过程成功应用于就原住民电子健康研究议程达成共识，证明了本土研究方法在确定复杂主题上的共识水平方面的潜力。由此产生的电子健康研究概念图可作为涉及原住民社区、政府和研究人员的基于伙伴关系的研究倡议的跳板，并且可能受到国际层面原住民电子健康研究人员的关注。
