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Using videotelephony to support paediatric oncology-related palliative care in the home: from abandoned RCT to acceptability study

¹ Centre for Online Health, University of Queensland, Queensland
² Queensland Children's Cancer Centre, Queensland; University of Queensland, Queensland
³ Queensland Children's Cancer Centre, Queensland
⁴ Queensland Children's Cancer Centre, Queensland; Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Queensland, Queensland
⁵ Centre for Online Health, University of Queensland, Queensland; Division of Speech Pathology, University of Queensland, Queensland; Telerehabilitation Research Unit, University of Queensland, Queensland
⁶ Centre for Online Health, University of Queensland, Queensland; Telerehabilitation Research Unit, University of Queensland, Queensland; Division of Physiotherapy, University of Queensland, Queensland
⁷ Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation and School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology, Queensland
⁸ School of Medicine, Griffith University Queensland
⁹ Centre for Online Health, University of Queensland, Queensland; Scottish Centre for Telehealth, Aberdeen

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

	Abstract

Videotelephony (real-time audio-visual communication) has been used successfully in adult palliative home care. This paper describes two attempts to complete an RCT (both of which were abandoned following difficulties with family recruitment), designed to investigate the use of videotelephony with families receiving palliative care from a tertiary paediatric oncology service in Brisbane, Australia. To investigate whether providing videotelephone-based support was acceptable to these families, a 12-month non-randomised acceptability trial was completed. Seventeen palliative care families were offered access to a videotelephone support service in addition to the 24 hours ‘on-call' service already offered. A 92% participation rate in this study provided some reassurance that the use of videotelephones themselves was not a factor in poor RCT participation rates. The next phase of research is to investigate the integration of videotelephone-based support from the time of diagnosis, through outpatient care and support, and for palliative care rather than for palliative care in isolation. Trial registration ACTRN 12606000311550

Key Words: clinical trial, cost-analysis, home telehealth, oncology, palliative care, paediatric

First published on December 10, 2008, doi:10.1177/0269216308100251

Palliative Medicine 2009;23:228.

A more recent version of this article appeared on April 1, 2009


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