Telepsychiatry: assessment of televideo psychiatric interview reliability with present- and next-generation internet infrastructures

Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2001 Sep;104(3):223-6. doi: 10.1034/j.1600-0447.2001.00236.x.

Abstract

Objective: We assessed the reliability of remote video psychiatric interviews conducted via the internet using narrow and broad bandwidths.

Method: Televideo psychiatric interviews conducted with 42 in-patients with chronic schizophrenia using two bandwidths (narrow, 128 kilobits/s; broad, 2 megabits/s) were assessed in terms of agreement with face-to-face interviews in a test-retest fashion. As a control, agreement was assessed between face-to-face interviews. Psychiatric symptoms were rated using the Oxford version of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), and agreement between interviews was estimated as the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).

Results: The ICC was significantly lower in the narrow bandwidth than in the broad bandwidth and the control for both positive symptoms score and total score.

Conclusion: While reliability of televideo psychiatric interviews is insufficient using the present narrow-band internet infrastructure, the next generation of infrastructure (broad-band) may permit reliable diagnostic interviews.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Analysis of Variance
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Internet
  • Interview, Psychological*
  • Male
  • Mental Disorders / diagnosis*
  • Middle Aged
  • Observer Variation
  • Remote Consultation*
  • Reproducibility of Results