Method
The research applied a mixed-methods technique, as can be seen in Figure 1. Participants aged 18 years or older who had received podiatric care in the public primary healthcare system within the preceding 24 months were recruited. Furthermore, state-registered podiatrists and senior health care management who have a close association within the podiatry profession were interviewed to explore their views regarding the introduction of podiatric telemedicine service. Ethical approval was sought and granted before the commencement of the study.
Figure 1: A graphical representation of the mixed-method technique used to describe the tools used to carry out this research.
The questionnaire by Ayatollahi, Sarabi and Langarizadeh5 was used to interview the podiatrists to explore their perceptions of the use of telemedicine. The questionnaire comprised several closed-ended questions and was scored using a five-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high).5
The IT Familiarity Questionnaire and the Telehealth Usability Questionnaire (TUQ) questionnaire were used to interview the service users. This comprised eight questions which explored the ability of individuals’ to use information technology using a Likert scale (1=daily use and 3=no use)6 and a part of the TUQ, which exclusively incorporated a subset of pertinent and pragmatic questions relevant to the research context, The response options ranged from 1 (representing disagreement) to 7 (representing agreement).7 The recruitment process for both questionnaires was conducted through convenience sampling. The questionnaires were disseminated using SurveyMonkey, through a social media platform. SPSS was utilized to analyze the quantitative data for both questionnaires.
After quantitative data analysis, focus groups and interviews were arranged with individuals willing to participate in additional discussions. A series of three online focus groups were conducted, each consisting of five state-registered podiatrists. Additionally, three virtual interviews were conducted with senior managers following the questions (Figure 1). The sessions were recorded, and comprehensive notes were taken throughout. The data collected was evaluated using thematic analysis, which was subsequently verified by two independent raters. In addition, a Cohen-Kappa statistical analysis was conducted to assess the level of inter-rater reliability.