Family Caregivers’ Experiences With Telehealth During COVID-19: Insights From Michigan

Minakshi Raj; Bradley Iott; Denise Anthony; Jodyn Platt

doi:10.1370/afm.2760

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RE: Family Caregivers' Experiences With Telehealth During COVID-19: Insights From Michigan
Tauras T Vucianis and Lorraine S Wallace

Published on: 11 April 2022

Published on: (11 April 2022)
Page navigation anchor for RE: Family Caregivers' Experiences With Telehealth During COVID-19: Insights From Michigan
RE: Family Caregivers' Experiences With Telehealth During COVID-19: Insights From Michigan
Tauras T Vucianis, Undergraduate, The Ohio State University
Other Contributors:
Lorraine S Wallace, Associate Professor--College of Medicine
I read Dr. Raj and colleagues recent brief report, “Family Caregivers’ Experiences with Telehealth during COVID-19: Insights from Michigan,” with great interest. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread changes and adaptations in healthcare delivery, including expansion of telehealth consultations.1,2 As the authors describe, telehealth benefits and barriers must be considered as we move beyond COVID-19.

Your team employed a broad and inclusive definition of “family caregiver.” The majority of caregivers were women with an average age of just over 50 years. Caregivers not only provide assistance with tasks of daily living, but also play significant roles in medical care coordination. As your study ascertained, caregivers’ perceptions and comfort with telehealth are critical to understand. While your study was exploratory in nature, did you consider interactions and/or reciprocal relationships between ages of both caregivers and patients? What are your thoughts surrounding the likelihood of younger caregivers having preconceived notions that their older relative would struggle to use telehealth due to technology challenges?

Did you consider querying patients themselves to gauge their perceptions and/or comfort level using telehealth? I believe that collecting this information is paramount in understanding patient-level accessibility-related telehealth issues and limitations. This information would be useful in furthering telehealth e...
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I read Dr. Raj and colleagues recent brief report, “Family Caregivers’ Experiences with Telehealth during COVID-19: Insights from Michigan,” with great interest. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread changes and adaptations in healthcare delivery, including expansion of telehealth consultations.1,2 As the authors describe, telehealth benefits and barriers must be considered as we move beyond COVID-19.

Your team employed a broad and inclusive definition of “family caregiver.” The majority of caregivers were women with an average age of just over 50 years. Caregivers not only provide assistance with tasks of daily living, but also play significant roles in medical care coordination. As your study ascertained, caregivers’ perceptions and comfort with telehealth are critical to understand. While your study was exploratory in nature, did you consider interactions and/or reciprocal relationships between ages of both caregivers and patients? What are your thoughts surrounding the likelihood of younger caregivers having preconceived notions that their older relative would struggle to use telehealth due to technology challenges?

Did you consider querying patients themselves to gauge their perceptions and/or comfort level using telehealth? I believe that collecting this information is paramount in understanding patient-level accessibility-related telehealth issues and limitations. This information would be useful in furthering telehealth education and outreach among patients ≥60 years of age in the future.

References
Keppel G, Cole AM, Ramsbottom M, Nagpal S, Hornecker J, Thomson C, Nguyen V, Baldwin LM. Early response of primary care practices to COVID-19 pandemic. J Prim Care Community Health. 2022;13:21501319221085374. 10.1177/21501319221085374

Hays RD, Skootsky SA. Patient experience with in-person and telehealth visits before and during the COVID-19 pandemic at a large integrated health system in the United States. J Gen Intern Med. 2022;37(4):847-852. 10.1007/s11606-021-07196-4
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Competing Interests: None declared.