Identifying Public Healthcare Priorities in Virtual Care for Older Adults: A Participatory Research Study

Dai Pu; Victoria Palmer; Louise Greenstock; Cathie Pigott; Anna Peeters; Lena Sanci; Michele Callisaya; Colette Browning; Wendy Chapman; Terry Haines

doi:10.3390/ijerph20054015

Identifying Public Healthcare Priorities in Virtual Care for Older Adults: A Participatory Research Study

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Feb 23;20(5):4015. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20054015.

Authors

Dai Pu^{1

2}, Victoria Palmer³, Louise Greenstock⁴, Cathie Pigott², Anna Peeters^{4

5}, Lena Sanci³, Michele Callisaya^{6

7}, Colette Browning^{8

9}, Wendy Chapman¹⁰, Terry Haines^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Primary and Allied Health Care, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Frankston, VIC 3199, Australia.
² Monash Partners Academic Health Science Centre, Clayton, VIC 3168, Australia.
³ Department of General Practice, Melbourne Medical School, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia.
⁴ Western Alliance Academic Health Science Centre, Warrnambool, VIC 3280, Australia.
⁵ Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University, Melbourne, VIC 3125, Australia.
⁶ Peninsula Clinical School, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Frankston, VIC 3199, Australia.
⁷ Menzies Institute for Medical Research, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS 7000, Australia.
⁸ Institute of Health and Wellbeing, Federation University, Ballarat, VIC 3350, Australia.
⁹ Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
¹⁰ Centre for Digital Transformation of Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia.

Abstract

There has been increasing adoption and implementation of virtual healthcare in recent years, especially with COVID-19 impacting the world. As a result, virtual care initiatives may not undergo stringent quality control processes to ensure that they are appropriate to their context and meet sector needs. The two objectives of this study were to identify virtual care initiatives for older adults currently in use in Victoria and virtual care challenges that could be prioritised for further investigation and scale-up and to understand why certain virtual care initiatives and challenges are prioritised over others for investigation and scale-up.

Methods: This project used an Emerging Design approach. A survey of public health services in the state of Victoria in Australia was first carried out, followed by the co-production of research and healthcare priorities with key stakeholders in the areas of primary care, hospital care, consumer representation, research, and government. The survey was used to gather existing virtual care initiatives for older adults and any associated challenges. Co-production processes consisted of individual ratings of initiatives and group-based discussions to identify priority virtual care initiatives and challenges to be addressed for future scale-up. Stakeholders nominated their top three virtual initiatives following discussions.

Results: Telehealth was nominated as the highest priority initiative type for scaling up, with virtual emergency department models of care nominated as the highest priority within this category. Remote monitoring was voted as a top priority for further investigations. The top virtual care challenge was data sharing across services and settings, and the user-friendliness of virtual care platforms was nominated as the top priority for further investigation.

Conclusions: Stakeholders prioritised public health virtual care initiatives that are easy to adopt and address needs that are perceived to be more immediate (acute more so than chronic care). Virtual care initiatives that incorporate more technology and integrated elements are valued, but more information is needed to inform their potential scale-up.

Keywords: COVID-19; aged; community-based participatory research; healthcare quality assurance; public health; scaling up; shared decision making; stakeholder engagement; telemedicine.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aged
COVID-19*
Community-Based Participatory Research
Delivery of Health Care
Humans
Telemedicine*
Victoria

Grants and funding

This study was funded by the Victorian Department of Health (previously the Department of Human Services) as part of the Victorian Health Care Recovery Initiative (VCHRI).