Specialist palliative medicine consultations undertaken by telemedicine? Preliminary results of a pilot study

This study aims to explore the experiences of patients referred for a specialist palliative care consultation via telemedicine compared to a face-to-face consultation. In particular this study will examine the feasibility, effectiveness and efficiency of performing consults in this manner.

Non-urgent referrals to the palliative care service in Dubbo are randomised to either a face-to-face consultation or a telemedicine consultation. After the consultation, the patient, family, accompanying nurse and physician are asked to comment on their satisfaction with the consultation. The patients and families' impression and recall of the recommendations made at the time of the consultation are examined by interview one week after the consultation

Lastly, the quality of the letters produced as a result of the consultation are examined using a validated tool, the Sheffield Assessment Instrument for Letters (SAIL). The study aims to complete a total of 30 consultations.

This paper will discuss the preliminary results so far.