Evaluating clinicians' experience in a telemedicine application: a presence perspective

The Virtual Critical Care Unit, (ViCCU®) is a telemedicine system that allows a specialist at a major referral hospital to direct a team in a rural hospital. ViCC® allows remote consultation to take place based on the transmission of multiple channels of real-time video/audio information of the patient, the clinical team, x-ray/paper documents and patient vital signs from the remote site to the specialist. This paper explores clinicians' experience of presence in a telemedicine application. In this study we used a modified version of the Slater-Usoh-Steed (SUS) presence questionnaire to measure clinicians' sense of presence when using ViCC®. We also explored the relationship between presence felt when using ViCCU® and personal, usability and media factors. Initial results indicate that in this context, personal factors influenced clinicians experience of presence and that there was a positive relationship between presence and both usability and media factors. Reflection on some of the challenges in conducting this study in an emergency department and the appropriateness of the SUS presence measure in this real setting are also included.