Protocol for refinement and validation of a conceptual model of service quality for Direct-to-Consumer telemedicine consultation

Purpose: A conceptual service quality model for Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) telemedicine consultation was developed based on an extensive literature review of 35 health and 25 e-service quality models. The review was conducted during January- December 2021 and led to the identification of a list of quality dimensions and development of a hierarchical, context-specific service quality model on three primary dimensions (system quality, interaction quality, use quality). The purpose of this study is to establish a Delphi study protocol to verify the validity of the model and identified dimensions of DTC telemedicine’s service quality. Methodology and Findings: The present article summarized the key aspects of the Delphi technique with an emphasis on the strengths and weakness of this popular consensus method. The proposed conceptual model will be tested through the Delphi technique to validate, add, remove, adapt or refine the identified dimensions using feedback from 10 patients, 10 telemedicine teleconsultants and 3 service quality academics. A maximum of 4 rounds of online questionnaires will be held. Consensus will be considered reached if at least 70% of the participants agree/strongly agree that an item should be included on a 5-point Likert scale, the inter-quartile score is less than 1.0 and the I-CVI is of 0.78 or higher after two rounds. Value: A potential limitation of the Delphi technique is the weakness of methodology. The paper provides a clear architecture of the methodology that will be employed by the authors to conduct the Delphi study.

Direct-to-Customer (DTC) telemedicine, Service quality, Scale validation, Delphi study.