Abstract
Background:Due to the increasing rate of the burn injuries and a limited number of specialized treatment centers, providing medical advice and medical care at the point of need is necessary. The aim of the present study was to design and implement a teleburn system to enhance the quality of care for the burn patients.Methods:This study was completed in 2016. In order to design the system, information needs assessment was conducted by using a questionnaire. The participants of this phase were five specialists, five general practitioners, and 12 nurses. The setting of the study was the burn department of a public hospital and a burn center. The prototype of the system was designed based on the findings derived from the first phase, and the usability of the system was evaluated later.Results:The teleburn system was a web-based system with different sections for GPs/nurses and specialists. In total, 28 burn consultations were made successfully by using the system. The findings of the usability testing showed that most of the participants evaluated the system at a good level. The mean score for the specialists, general practitioners and nurses was 8.4±0.46, 7.7±0.39, and 7.5±0.51, respectively.Conclusion:Although it was the first time in the country that the teleburn system was designed and introduced to the clinicians, they seemed to be satisfied with using the system. This system could help general practitioners and nurses to receive specialist's advice on a timely manner to improve the treatment of the burn patients. However, more research should be conducted to determine the effectiveness of using this technology in the real work environment.
Highlights
Telemedicine technology has made medical interventions possible even even when physicians and patients are far away from each other [1, 2]
The findings of several studies revealed that telemedicine applications are one of the solutions to improve burn care, and in some cases, it can be considered as an alternative to face-to-face examinations [10, 21, 35]
The use of imaging technology in the field of burn care and telemedicine has been highlighted [27, 28, 37]. It seems that using internet and web-based systems along with imaging technology have a crucial impact on improving care services [38 - 42]. Such a technology can be useful for developing countries, like IRAN, in which the number of burn centers is very limited and the specialists and plastic surgeons mainly work in the large cities [27, 43, 34]
Summary
Telemedicine technology has made medical interventions possible even even when physicians and patients are far away from each other [1, 2]. The use of telemedicine technology has a number of advantages, such as accelerating the process of care, improving clinical diagnoses and treatments and reducing unnecessary patients’ transportation between health care centers. The findings of the related studies show that due to the geographical dispersion and a limited number of specialized burn centers, the use of telemedicine for the burn patients is vital and can help to reduce medical errors significantly when treating these patients [3, 7 - 9]. Due to the increasing rate of the burn injuries and a limited number of specialized treatment centers, providing medical advice and medical care at the point of need is necessary. The aim of the present study was to design and implement a teleburn system to enhance the quality of care for the burn patients
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
