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A theory-guided qualitative descriptive approach was used. Willing participants who had received at least one telehealth swallowing therapy session participated in a one-time semi-structured interview. Researchers reviewed all transcripts and used a multi-step analysis process to build a coding framework through consensus discussion.
Summaries and key messages were generated for each code. Eleven participants recounted their telehealth experiences and reported feeling satisfied, comfortable and confident with the session s. They identified that previous experience with teleconferencing, access to optimal technical equipment, clinician skill, and caregiver assistance facilitated their telehealth participation. Participants highlighted that telehealth was beneficial as it reduced commuting time, COVID exposure and fatigue from travel; and also allowed caregiver participation particularly during COVID.
Patients reported that overall, telehealth sessions did not compromise their learning experience when compared to in-person sessions. Patients benefited from use of telehealth in several ways despite some limitations of the use of technology. Patient feedback about telehealth provides an important perspective that may be critical to inform best practices for care delivery.
Head and neck cancer service, in particular, was challenged with the difficult task of balancing between COVID infection risk mitigation and risk of cancer disease progression [ 1 , 2 ].
