Findings
A total of 55 state-registered podiatrists completed the questionnaire and fifteen participated in the focus groups. The results from the podiatrist’s questionnaire indicated that the security relating to telemedicine technology was of utmost importance (x̅ = 4.18, SD = 0.70), whilst clinicians’ knowledge on telemedicine technology was the scored lowest (x̅ = 2.11, SD = 0.63). Furthermore, podiatrists gave a score of below 3 when they were asked whether they would consider using podiatric telemedicine in future consultations indicating that there still existed a degree of uncertainty among podiatrists whether they are willing to adopt telemedicine consultations. In addition, podiatrists have suggested that if they were to consider telemedicine consultation, their first preference would be for pre-operative podiatric care, followed by dermatological and post-operative care, with musculoskeletal and infection cases being ranked as third preference.
With regards to the service users questionnaire, a total of 171 valid responses were obtained with 68% of the respondents being females and 33% of which were over the age of 50. The utilization of information technology devices was common amongst the service users, except for the use of eBooks, which did not yield any statistically significant findings. The internal consistency of the eight IT familiarity statements was deemed excellent, as evidenced by a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.886.
With reference to the service user questionnaire utilizing TUQ, mean scores exhibit an upward trend, indicating that there was a higher likelihood of agreement among the respondents regarding the use of podiatric telemedicine as part of their healthcare. The participants agreed that telemedicine is a time-efficient alternative to physically visiting a healthcare facility (x̅ = 6.10, SD = 0.18). However, there was a lack of consensus regarding the comparability of telemedicine consultations to in-person visits (x̅ = 3.70, SD = 0.27). The word cloud, as presented in Figure 2A, illustrates the prevalent themes that surfaced from the open-ended questioning posed to the service users, inquiring about their perspectives on podiatric telemedicine. The outcomes from the focus groups conducted among podiatrists and interviews conducted with senior management are illustrated in Figure 2B.