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Why co-design guidelines for virtual healthcare?
- Provincial published guidelines are either too general, or too specific (reference: Review Review of Existing Relevant Virtual Health Guidelines and Practices)
- Many published guides do not address issues being brought up by subject matter experts (reference: Subject Matter Expert Interviews for Virtual Healthcare )
- Co-designed draft guidelines should address barriers brought up by subject matter experts and co-designers
- TODO: "Nothing for us without us"
Guideline Model
Based on understanding of functional barriers, input from subject matter experts, and co-design, the following is an evolving model inclusive guidelines in virtual healthcare.
Guideline criteria can be conceptually grouped in the following continua:
- Setting: things related to the individuals' physical context.
- Personal: matters related to the person's individual preferences and needs.
- Process: matters related to initiating, preparing, and attending virtual healthcare sessions. Much of the guidelines published by governing bodies focuses on process (also see Review of Existing Relevant Virtual Health Guidelines and Practices).
These criteria are not static - their significance changes over time depending on the individual and their contexts. For example, technology matters may not be significant when certain members of the family are in the proximity, but become significant barriers when those members are absent.
Setting
Factors affecting a person's setting includes:
- Technology available, such as computers, phones, tablets, mice, keyboard, telephone
- Environmental conditions such as lighting, privacy, open space, noise, access to electrical outlet
- Connectivity situation such as cellular reception, Wifi quality, Internet bandwidth, telephone quality
Personal
An individual may have personal needs, preferences, and other situations affecting their ability to engage in healthcare. For example:
- dependency on members in their circle of care (i.e. a caregiver, or family member)
- comprehension (like language)
- ability to perceive (sight, touch, hearing)
- state of being (medication interactions, fatigue, etc.)
- personal trust, privacy, security
- cultural background
Process
For an individual to engage in virtual healthcare, they need to be able to initiate, prepare, and follow-through with an appointment. Many of the published guidelines from governing bodies in Canada focus on process (see Review of Existing Relevant Virtual Health Guidelines and Practices). Matters related to process include:
- finding a practitioner to contact
- use the accepted method of contact
- schedule an appointment
- preparing for the appointment and preparing any needed documentation or records
- attending the appointment using the practitioner's platform of choice
- technology privacy
- technology security
- etc.