[MUSIC PLAYING]
BETH SUNDSTROM: Women in South Carolina,
especially women in rural areas of South Carolina,
face disparities in health care.
And these disparities may be related to such issues
as cost, transportation, or simply
shortages of health care providers in these areas.
And so in 2014, one of our community partners
actually approached us with the idea
about developing a telehealth intervention.
And so they came to the Women's Health Research team
because we have expertise and formative audience research.
And this community partner really
wanted to know what do women in the community,
especially in rural South Carolina--
how do they feel about telehealth?
And is there an opportunity to develop
a telehealth intervention in rural South Carolina
to improve women's health?
So in order to answer this research question,
we developed a three-pronged research approach.
First, we conducted 52 in-depth interviews with women
in the target audience.
So we went to rural South Carolina.
We went to five counties.
We went to Allendale, Beaufort, Houlton,
Hampton, and Jasper counties.
And we talked with 52 women.
We spent an hour at least with each one
to talk to them about their opinions
and perspectives of telehealth.
Then to complement that, we also conducted a case study
of telehealth in South Carolina.
So we went and did a document analysis.
We looked at legal artifacts.
We looked at news stories.
And then we also talked with experts.
So we talked with 11 experts and stakeholders
throughout the state of South Carolina
to really get a full picture of the opportunity
to develop a telehealth intervention for women
in South Carolina.
ELLIE SMITH: My main role in the research
was conducting interviews with the women in the rural counties
that we were assigned.
All of our participants pretty much
said that telehealth would provide many benefits to them
and their health care access, namely cost.
A lot of participants describe financial barriers
when attempting to access health care.
Transportation issues were also noted by participants.
And having a telehealth center in their community that's
more readily available to them would
help them gain more access to health care.
I think they have their concerns of confidentiality and privacy.
But if those are handled appropriately
for the telehealth programs, they
would be definitely willing to use those in their communities.
MAJA GRZEJDZIAK: It was really exciting to work with this team
because I was able to hear what the stakeholders were saying.
And my other research partner was
able to interview the participants.
And so we really gained a comprehensive view
of what telehealth and telemedicine looked like right
now in South Carolina.
And some of the findings were that telehealth programs really
haven't been fully utilized to the potential that they can be.
And so this kind of gave a screenshot,
a snapshot in time of where we are now in South Carolina
and where we can be.
BETH SUNDSTROM: So on the Women's Health Research team,
we're really committed to translating
our research into practice.
And while our research findings are
important for health communicators and public health
professionals, they can really use these findings in the field
when they're designing a public health intervention.
We also want to make sure that the laws that are passed
are beneficial to women in South Carolina.
And specifically the South Carolina Telemedicine Act,
which was signed into law by the Governor in June of this year,
we were able to impact that legislation.
Originally in the bill, there was an exclusion.
Physicians would not be able to prescribe contraception
through telehealth.
And of course, our research, we found
that contraception was one of the things
that women really need.
And so by rating this testimony and really connecting
with legislators, we were actually successful
in getting them to remove that exclusion, which I think really
paves the way for telehealth to be
really effective and successful in reaching
women in rural South Carolina and addressing their health
needs.