Write a report on telehealth, which addresses the following:

• Introduction

• Background/overview - Provide some definitions, information about etc.

• Review of specific case studies - select a specific example. This may be the implementation of a system as reported in a journal article, or one aspect of a large national project, such as creating IHI for the eHealth record. This must be from the last five years. Discuss the case, including how this compares to your background and benefits and limitations of the project/system. Three to eight pages.

• Future developments in this area

• Conclusion

• Reference list.

Critical analysis example:-

You can be descriptive and say:

Many believe the sky is blue (Brown 2011). There has been some argument against this, that the sky can be a multitude of colours based on the weather (Smith 2011), whilst others say it is actually black and it is the sun passing through our atmosphere which gives it its different colour spectrum (Jones 2011). But 98% of research indicates it is blue (Lee 2011).

As you can see, this is quite descriptive, but doesn't actually demonstrate your understanding (other than being able to regurgitate the information).

You can critically analyse this by:

In his historical study, Brown (2011) hypothesised the sky is blue. Brown surveyed a thousand residents of Edithville to validate his hypothesis. The participant population represented 50% of the population of Edithville, so the sample was representative, but Brown's study design was simplistic and open to interpretation and error. How each individual participant perceived a colour may have varied and without a reference (for example a colour chart to point to when determining how the participant classified the sky colour) his designed lacked reliability and validity. Furthermore, Brown surveyed his participants over a seven month period, in which weather and other factorial changes occurred (from day to day). Should his design be applied to a different population, for example a remote population who may have a different perception of what Brown defines as blue, in fact calling this grey) will most likely indicate his results cannot be replicated or reproduced. Therefore his hypothesis and findings cannot be relied or related to.

Smith (2011) hypothesised that the sky is in fact a spectrum of colours based upon the weather. Unlike Brown, Smith used a Dulux colour chart as his survey tool, and asked 20 participants in Murdochville to look at the sky and point to the chart to determine what colour they perceived it to be. Smith mapped these responses against the Bureau of Meteorology data, finding a significant correlation between perceived sky colour and the weather. Whilst his study design is good, it also relies on individual interpretation with no scientific basis. For example, a participant with blue-purple colour blindness will answer differently to someone with normal colour vision, or research which shows men and women perceive colours differently (Major 2011). More importantly, Smith only surveyed 20 participants, representing only 1% of the population of Murdochville. Therefore his results are not representative and therefore cannot be related to or relied.

In 2009, based at Curtinville, Jones (2011) undertook an extensive astrological examination of the atmosphere and the impact the introduction of light (for example, the Sun) has on the ‘colour' of the sky. Jones denotes ‘colour' in inverted commas as his study findings indicated that the sky, which is actually the atmosphere, has no colour. At night time he concluded we can look through this atmosphere directly into space. During the day, when the Sun shines through this atmosphere, it gives a spectrum of colours. His research was able to provide Smith's research some support in that the weather (presence or absence of atmospheric pressure and cells) did impact on the perceived ‘colour' of the sky. His study design is flawless, rigorous, valid and reliable.