Table 1.
Study site or sites | Technology or technologies | Participants | Data sources | |
Video outpatient consultations | ||||
1A. Acute hospital trust (3 specialties—diabetes, prenatal diabetes, cancer—on different sites) 1B. Nurse-led heart failure service run from community hospital |
Skype (acute hospital) and FaceTime (community hospital) | 1A. 24 staff (9 clinicians, 10 support staff, 5 managers); 30 patients 1B. 10 staff (8 nurses, 1 manager, 1 administrator); 8 patients Plus 48 national stakeholders and wider informants on remote consulting |
35 formal semistructured interviews plus ~100 informal interviews; ≥150 hours of ethnographic observation; 40 videotaped remote consultations (12 diabetes, 6 prenatal diabetes, 12 cancer, 10 heart failure); ≥500 emails; 30 local documents such as business plans, protocols; 50 national-level documents | |
GPSatracking for cognitive impairment | ||||
2A. Social care organization in deprived borough in inner London, UK | GPS tracking devices supplied by 5 different technology companies, includes GPS tracking with virtual map and geofence alert functions | 7 index cases; 8 lay caregivers; 5 formal caregivers; 3 social care staff; 3 health care staff; 3 call center staff | 22 ethnographic visits and “go-along” interviews with index cases (~50 hours); 15 ethnographic visits with health and social care staff; 6 staff interviews; 5 team meetings; 3 local protocols | |
Pendant alarms | ||||
3A. Health care commissioning organization in deprived borough in outer London, UK 3B. Social care organization in mixed borough in the Midlands, UK |
In both sites, pendant alarms and base units were supplied by multiple different technology companies and supported by local councils, each with a different set of arrangements with providers and an “arms-length management organization” alarm support service | Site 3A. 8 index cases; 7 lay caregivers; 12 professional staff Site 3B. 11 index cases; 9 health and social care staff from frontline service delivery to senior board level; 3 representatives from telecare industry |
50 semistructured and narrative interviews; 61 ethnographic visits (~80 hours of observation) including needs assessments and reviews; 20 hours of observation at team meetings | |
Remote biomarker monitoring in heart failure | ||||
Acute hospital trusts in 6 different cities in United Kingdom | Tablet computer and commercially available sensing devices (blood pressure monitor, weighing scales, pulse oximeter) | 7 research staff, including principal investigator and research coordinator for SUPPORT-HFb trial; 7 clinical staff involved in trial; 4 clinical staff not involved in trial; (to date) 18 patient participants and 1 spouse | 1 patient focus group; 8 patient interviews; 24 additional semistructured interviews; SUPPORT-HF study protocol and ethics paperwork; material properties and functionality of biomarker database | |
Care organizing software | ||||
5A. Health care commissioning organization in northern England 5B. National caregiver support charity in UK |
5A. Web-based portal developed by small technology company for use by families to help them organize and coordinate the care of (typically) an older relative 5B. Smartphone app codesigned by caregiver support charity for same purpose |
Product A: 2 technology developers and CEOc of technology company; 4 social care commissioners; 30 health and social care staff considering using the device; 4 users of the device, 1 nonuser. Product B (to date): 2 members of care charity (including CEO); 10 qualitative case studies of users undertaken by another academic team |
22 semistructured and narrative interviews; 16 hours’ ethnographic observations of meetings; autoethnographic testing of functionality and usability of devices; secondary analysis of third-party evaluation of Product B | |
Data warehouse for integrated case management | ||||
1 acute hospital trust, 1 community health trust, 3 local councils, 3 health care commissioning organizations | Integrated data warehouse incorporating predictive risk modeling (in theory interoperable with record systems in participating organizations) | 14 staff; 20 patient participants | 14 semistructured interviews; 50 ethnographic visits (~80 hours); 12 hours’ shadowing community staff; 4 hours’ observation of interdisciplinary meetings; 12 local protocols or documents |
aGPS: global positioning system.
bSUPPORT-HF: Seamless User-Centred Proactive Provision of Risk-Stratified Treatment for Heart Failure.
cCEO: chief executive officer.