BMC Health Services Research: The Implementation of Telemedicine in Wound Care

BMC Health Services Research: The Implementation of Telemedicine in Wound Care

The increasing use of telemedicine represents a major shift for health workers and patients alike. This study explored how both health care professionals and patients experienced the implementation of telemedicine follow-up in primary care. The analyses revealed the following themes: (1) enhancing professional self-efficacy for wound care, (2) a need to redesign the approach to implementing TM technology and (3) challenging to facilitate behavioral changes in relation to preventive care. As to patients’ experiences with taking part in the intervention, we found the following three themes: (1) experience with TM promotes a feeling of security over time, (2) patients’ preferences and individual needs on user participation in TM are not met, and (3) experiencing limited focus on prevention of re-ulceration. Future implementation should focus on providing nurses with improved technological equipment and work on how to facilitate the use of TM in regular practice in order to fully capitalize on this new technology.