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.