| The vast geography of Canada, the climate, the numerous rural communities, and the availability of human resources creates challenges for delivering health care services to all the population. Telehealth is being rapidly deployed in Canada and across the world as a way to address these challenges. The appropriate use of telehealth in meeting the needs of the population while maintaining quality and satisfactory patient care requires investigation. When speaking with patients and health care providers I discovered discordant views between them related to what information would or would not be appropriate to share using telehealth, especially if sharing diagnostic information related to the investigation of cancer. This study describes the patient's experience of receiving diagnostic information using telehealth in the investigation of a potential new or recurrent diagnosis of cancer. Case study is used in this qualitative study as the method to describe the patient's experience. Multiple sources of evidence including participant observation and interviews allow an experience to be known in the actual context of the situation, in this case the context of telehealth. Health care providers are guided in their practice by an ethic of care. The practice norm and the literature support sharing this type of information in person, but this knowledge is mostly from the providers perspective and not substantiated by empirical evidence. Telehealth now makes it possible to share this information in a different way, creating a new context for the delivery of care. The patient's experience of using telehealth in this context is unknown. This study is required so the patient's experience can inform the use of telehealth in design and delivery of oncology services. |
