What are patient preferences for virtual consultations in an orthopaedic rehabilitation setting?

Abstract

The use of Virtual Consultations (VC) in healthcare has received significant interest from policy makers. The COVID-19 pandemic shone a spotlight on VC in practice; within the NHS, VC were rapidly implemented across outpatient departments. The role of patient preferences for VC is not yet fully understood.
This thesis consists of five published empirical research papers which collectively identify, characterise and explain patient preferences for VC in an orthopaedic rehabilitation setting. The papers were underpinned by an abductive approach. This thesis used Normalisation Process Theory, Burden of Treatment Theory and Preference Theory to guide the design, data collection and analysis of the studies.
The first paper reports a qualitative systematic review of literature about the use of VC in an orthopaedic rehabilitation setting. The second paper reports a qualitative interview study (n = 44) to understand the factors that influence patient preferences. The third paper is a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) to identify the importance of these factors for patients (n = 122). At this stage, the COVID-19 pandemic considerably shifted the context of the work as VC’s were rapidly implemented in practice. The fourth paper reports qualitative interviews with patients (n = 13) to explore the results of the DCE and understand the impact of COVID-19 on preferences. The fifth and final paper is an investigation into the experiences of patients, clinicians and managers (n =

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ORCID for Maria Stokes: orcid.org/0000-0002-4204-0890

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