| The Michigan Medicine adult Assisted Ventilation Clinic (AVC) supports patients with neuromuscular disorders and spinal cord injuries and their caregivers at home, helping them avoid expensive emergency department visits, hospitalization, and unnecessary or excessive treatments. Mobile device videoconferencing provides an effective capability for remote mechanically-ventilated patient management but must rely upon an unknown infrastructure comprising patient and caregiver mobile device ownership, connectivity, and experience---and intent to use the service if provided. The purpose of this study was to measure the extent of this infrastructure and the perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and intent to use this mobile device capability using a questionnaire based on the technology acceptance model (TAM).;Of 188 patients and caregivers asked, 153 (n = 153) respondents completed a questionnaire comprised of 14 demographic and 24 Likert-type questions. Inferential results indicated a significant correlation between perceived ease of use (PEU) and perceived usefulness (PU) of mobile devices in remote care and their intent to use them (sig. < .001). Also, mobile device own/access significantly correlated with PEU and PU (p = .003 & .004, respectively), but not intent to use. No single demographic variable (age, distance to AVC, diagnoses, mobile device experience, tracheostomy, etc.) significantly correlated with intent to use. Descriptive results indicated a significant patient/caregiver provided infrastructure: 96% have cellular/WiFi/Internet access, 91% own or have access to mobile devices, 77% have downloaded apps, 68% have used videoconferencing, and 80% own between two and five ICT devices.;Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Likert variable analysis were used to assess the construct validity of the TAM based upon the AVC data collected. Both the EFA and the Likert variable analysis resulted in five factors suggesting an alternative model of the data may better represent the AVC population than the TAM. The EFA five factors explained 75% of the variance in the data; the Likert five factors included concept, how operationally, hands-on/ability, health beliefs, and social influence. Overall, 80% of the respondents agreed with intent to use mobile devices in remote care using this patient- and caregiver-owned infrastructure. Six suggestions for related future research are also provided. |
