Trisha Greenhalgh|Shanti Vijayaraghavan|Joseph Wherton|Sara Shaw|Emma Byrne|Desirée Campbell-Richards|Satya Bhattacharya|Philippa Hanson|Seendy Ramoutar|Charles Gutteridge|Isabel Hodkinson|Anna Collard|Joanne Morris
Virtual online consultations: advantages and limitations (VOCAL) study
University of Oxford|Barts Health NHS Trust|Queen Mary University of London|University of Oxford|Queen Mary University of London|Barts Health NHS Trust|Barts Health NHS Trust|Barts Health NHS Trust|Barts Health NHS Trust|Barts Health NHS Trust|London Borough of Tower Hamlets|Barts Health NHS Trust|Barts Health NHS Trust
h3introductionh3 remote video consultations clinician patient technically possible increasingly acceptable introduced settings alongside occasionally replacing facetoface telephone consultations h3methodsh3 explore advantages limitations video consultations conduct indepth qualitative studies real consultations microlevel embedded organisational case study mesolevel taking account national context macrolevel study based 2 contrasting clinical settings diabetes cancer national health service nhs acute trust london uk main data sources microlevelaudio video screen capture produce rich multimodal data 45 remote consultations mesolevelinterviews ethnographic observations analysis documents within trust macrolevelkey informant interviews nationallevel stakeholders document analysis data analysed synthesised using sociotechnical framework developed structuration theory h3ethics approvalh3 city road hampstead nhs research ethics committee 9 december 2014 reference 14lo1883 h3planned outputsh3 plan outputs 5 main audiences 1 academics research publications conference presentations 2 service providers standard operating procedures provisional operational guidance key safety issues 3 professional bodies defence societies summary relevant findings inform guidance members 4 policymakers summary key findings 5 patients carers expect virtual consultation h3discussionh3 research literature video consultations sparse consultations offer potential advantages patients spared cost inconvenience travel healthcare system eg may costeffective fears expressed may clinically risky andor less acceptable patients staff bring significant technical logistical regulatory challenges anticipate study contribute balanced assessment circumstances model might introduced