Organ Transplant clinical trials

ORCHARD- Optimising Home Assessment of Rural Patients

This project assesses feasibility of providing medically vulnerable rural patients with Medical-Self-Assessment-Boxes containing equipment to use at home during telephone and video consultations (telemedicine) with GPs and other healthcare professionals. COVID-19 has caused an upsurge in primary care telemedicine which the investigators believe can be sustained and optimized to make things better for medically vulnerable rural patients beyond the pandemic. The investigators will achieve this by equipping the participants to self-measure and report key clinical measurements (e.g. blood pressure, temperature, oxygen levels) during telemedicine consultations. Before conducting a major evaluation of the Medical-Self-Assessment-Box for medically vulnerable rural patients the investigators must establish three things: First, to show the investigators can issue a Medical-Self-Assessment-Box to medically vulnerable rural patients and enable them to use it properly. Second, to determine that patients can use the Medical-Self-Assessment-Box effectively during telemedicine consultations. Third, to show that it is possible to measure how well the Medical-Self-Assessment-Box is working by counting how often the boxes are being used and whether use is appropriate and helpful. The knowledge gained will provide the investigators with the information needed to develop a funding proposal to evaluate Medical-Self-Assessment-Boxes for medically vulnerable rural patients in the whole of the UK.