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Maria Lynch and colleagues consider the public's views of telemedicine
This article has been subjected to double blind peer review
We were due to start a free standing minor injuries unit (MIU) at a community hospital about four miles away from the main A&E unit linked to the main department by a modified video conferencing system. It seemed sensible to find out the degree of support that such a system would enjoy among the members of the public.
Material and methods
A group of medical students developed a proforma questionnaire regarding public opinion of telemedicine and MIUs. Questions were asked regarding their opinions of various issues surrounding telemedicine including the context in which it should be used, funding, privacy, confidentiality and accountability. They also carried typed explanations of what they were asking, phrased without many technical terms. If technical terms were used, an additional sentence was included explaining the term. The students conducted an initial survey of 20 persons and confirmed the questionnaire was satisfactory. They also judged it as suitable for use by lay researchers.
Two lay interviewers were trained to use the questionnaire and the explanatory notes for each of the questions they would have to pose. One hundred persons were interviewed in the waiting room of the A&E department and a further 100 members of the general public were interviewed in the community in the vicinity of the A&E.
The respondents had the option of choosing from a five point Likert response range from `strongly agree' to strongly disagree' to a range of questions concerning telemedicine. Space was also made available for...