Deason Joseph P, Adams Scott J, Khan Amal, Lovo Stacey, Mendez Ivar
Virtual Health Hub, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
Department of Medical Imaging, Royal University Hospital, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
J Telemed Telecare. 2024 Nov 19:1357633X241293854. doi: 10.1177/1357633X241293854.
The rapid evolution and implementation of virtual care technologies for clinical use often exceeds the development of standardized implementation protocols, leading to gaps in the equitable and sustainable adoption of virtual care services, particularly in rural and remote areas. This paper introduces a comprehensive evaluation tool designed to assess community capacity and readiness for virtual care.
The development of the tool was informed by experiences from the Virtual Care and Robotics Program at the University of Saskatchewan. It involved a collaborative, multi-stakeholder approach that engaged healthcare leaders, IT experts and community healthcare workers. This iterative process included defining evaluation categories, mapping evaluative domains and refining the tool into a user-friendly checklist manual.
The tool identifies three key domains for assessing readiness: clinical needs, technology infrastructure and human resources/workflows. It was piloted in the remote community of Fond du Lac, Saskatchewan, where it successfully qualified the community for implementing telerobotic ultrasound services. The tool facilitated local engagement and highlighted the community's specific needs and readiness, enhancing the implementation process.
This evaluation tool contributes to bridging the gap between the rapid deployment of virtual care technologies and the need for comprehensive, standardized implementation protocols. It offers a structured, practical approach to assessing and enhancing community readiness for virtual care while promoting successful clinical implementation and equitable access to healthcare.
临床使用的虚拟护理技术的快速发展和应用往往超过了标准化实施协议的制定，导致虚拟护理服务在公平和可持续采用方面存在差距，特别是在农村和偏远地区。本文介绍了一种旨在评估社区对虚拟护理的能力和准备情况的综合评估工具。
该工具的开发借鉴了萨斯喀彻温大学虚拟护理与机器人项目的经验。它采用了一种多方利益相关者协作的方法，涉及医疗保健领导者、信息技术专家和社区医疗工作者。这个迭代过程包括定义评估类别、绘制评估领域以及将该工具完善为一份用户友好的检查表手册。
该工具确定了评估准备情况的三个关键领域：临床需求、技术基础设施和人力资源/工作流程。它在萨斯喀彻温省丰迪拉克的偏远社区进行了试点，在那里它成功地使该社区有资格实施远程机器人超声服务。该工具促进了当地的参与，并突出了社区的具体需求和准备情况，从而加强了实施过程。
该评估工具有助于弥合虚拟护理技术快速部署与全面、标准化实施协议需求之间的差距。它提供了一种结构化、实用的方法来评估和提高社区对虚拟护理的准备情况，同时促进临床的成功实施和医疗保健的公平获取。
