Care needs of patients with chronic wounds for implementing a virtual care program: A qualitative study

by Nasib Babaei, Vahid Zamanzadeh, Leila Valizadeh, Mojgan Lotfi, Marziyeh Avazeh

Introduction

Chronic and complex wounds are serious public health problems worldwide. Given the time-consuming nature of chronic wound healing and the need for long-term follow-up, a virtual care approach can effectively manage these patients. Identifying the care needs of patients with chronic wounds is key to successfully managing their care remotely. This study aimed to identify the care needs of patients with chronic wounds for implementing a virtual care program to manage this group of patients remotely.

Methods

This descriptive qualitative study was conducted using a conventional content analysis approach in wound care clinics of East Azerbaijan Province (northwestern Iran). Data were collected through six focus group discussions with wound therapists and six semi-structured individual interviews with patients with chronic wounds. Participants were recruited using purposive sampling. The data were analyzed by MAXQDA 10 software.

Results

After analyzing the data, the most important care needs of patients with chronic wounds for implementing a virtual care program were identified into three main categories, including the need for awareness-raising, needs related to health dimensions, and the need for specialized financial support (insurance).

Conclusion

The findings of this study indicated that the successful implementation of a virtual care program for patients with chronic wounds requires addressing three core needs: enhancing patients’ awareness regarding wound management, attending to their physical, emotional, and social health dimensions, and providing financial support through insurance coverage for wound care services. Addressing these needs can significantly improve the quality of care and therapeutic outcomes for patients in a virtual care setting.

Defining upper extremity dominance: The contributions of hand preference and grip strength

by Mohamadreza Hatefi, Seyedeh Feriyal Mahdavi, Amirreza Abbasi, Farideh Babakhani

Background

Upper extremity (UE) dominance is often defined by self-reported hand preference; however, this may not accurately reflect true functional or strength-based dominance. This study examined the relationship between writing hand, throwing hand, and maximal grip strength to assess how these measures align.

Methods

Thirty-four healthy, recreationally active college-aged individuals reported their preferred writing and throwing hands and completed standardized grip strength testing. Associations among the variables were analyzed using Phi coefficients and chi-square tests.

Results

A moderate, significant relationship was found between writing and throwing hand preference (φ = 0.456; p = 0.008), indicating general consistency across these subjective measures. However, no significant association emerged between grip strength dominance and either writing (φ = 0.027; p = 0.876) or throwing hand (φ = 0.096; p = 0.574).

Conclusion

These results suggest that grip strength dominance may not correlate with commonly used indicators of hand preference, highlighting the need for task-specific definitions of dominance in clinical and athletic contexts. Consequently, employing such task-specific definitions allows for more accurate assessments and enhances the translational relevance of research findings in practical settings.