User Acceptability of Autonomous Telemedicine
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Patient acceptability of the use of an autonomous telephone system for the delivery of clinical follow-up conversations after cataract surgery.
IRAS ID
293656
Contact name
Guy Mole
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Ufonia Limited
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 31 days
Research summary
Summary of Research
This research will establish the patient acceptability of a system that conducts automated clinical conversations via a telephone call.The demands on clinical services are increasing, whilst the supply of clinical staff remains limited. One way to help meet this need is to use technology to automate routine aspects of clinical care. This can free staff to support other more complex care, whilst delivering a reliable and reproducible service for patients. The use of automation in healthcare is novel and so this research explores the attitudes and experience of patients using the system at a single clinical site.
The system being evaluated delivers a follow-up telephone call to patients after cataract surgery. This is a high volume service that is typically performed by clinical staff, but is highly stereotyped and very safe. The technology system provides a replacement for a human natural-language conversation. The system is supervised by human staff to provide additional clinical assurance.
The research will survey the experience of 1000 patients who undergo cataract surgery follow-up using this system. Importantly, using a regular telephone call means patients are not required to have access or literacy in any technology solution. All patients who were eligible for human-delivered telephone follow-up will be eligible for the research. The study will be conducted at a single acute hospital Trust and last six-months.
Participants clinical care will not differ from the routine standard of care and all calls will be supervised.
During the phone call using the system, participants will be asked to consent to be part of the research. If they agree they will be asked automated questions about their experience of using the system, and will be asked if they are willing to participate in a further telephone interview about their experience. Up to 50 patients who agree to a further interview will be contacted.
Summary of Results
190 calls were conducted and patients in general found the system acceptable with a mean score of 9/10.24 patients underwent semi-structured interviews and also scored the system well with an average score of 4/5 for the Telephone Usability Questionnaire (TUQ).
We concluded that patients found the system acceptable and are conducting a multi-centre study designed to look at safety.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/NW/0083
Date of REC Opinion
23 Apr 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion