**2.4 Feasibility and acceptance**

Most projects that develop or investigate use of technology will report on its feasibility and acceptance. Such projects tend to include small numbers of patients, are short duration, and study a single group. There is also a tendency for projects to be repetitive of earlier work. Outcomes are therefore limited in scope. However they can provide anecdotal evidence to guide design and small scale results that can be used in the design of larger trials. These projects have a tendency to be over-zealous in their approach to evaluation. For example [21] references 10 similar pilot studies and administered a questionnaire with 37 questions to patients. The project also found that 84% of the participants preferred the telehealth to having to visit the hospital and 87% were very or extremely satisfied. This is a common outcome in such short term projects.

However the reasons for the acceptance may need to be fully understood in order to interpret outcome appropriately. In [21] patients with postpartum hypertension were monitored at home, in place of having to travel to hospital with a new-born, waiting in an out-patient clinic with a fractious baby, and interfering with feeding and sleep. However this small study also reported that 16% of participants developed severe hypertension, 45% had some change of medication and 11% had to be referred to the emergency department for evaluation of symptomatic severe hypertension. None were referred for readmission. Such data can inform likely group size in larger studies and determine prevalence in outcomes if deployed at scale.
