Telemedicine support to home renal dialysis patients

StEAM adoption study for Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Tele Renal Dialysis: * Video-as-a-service has been successfully used for nurses to remotely support home dialysis renal patients in Cumbria and Lancashire. * The Cumbrian Centre for Health Technologies (CaCHeT) at the University of Cumbria was engaged to undertake an Adoption Study using their Stakeholder Empowered Adoption Model, an approach that involves engagement with all key stakeholders to understand barriers to and enablers of adoption. * Our remit was to understand, from the viewpoint of stakeholders, what are the barriers to and benefits from using the renal telemedicine service and then to identify these barriers and benefits to managers and commissioners with the aim of aiding adoption of the technology. Background: * The regional Renal Centre at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals provides treatment and care for patients suffering from kidney problems across Lancashire and South Cumbria. * Dialysis patients usually have to travel to hospital up to three times a week where each dialysis session can last up to four hours at a time. * Taking into consideration journey times required for travel to and from the hospital, attending renal appointments in hospital is time-consuming. For some patients due to geographical location, it can take a whole day. * Home dialysis can be an attractive alternative for some patients, if they have the resources and capabilities required.