OBJECTIVES: The aim of our study was to develop the Romanian version of the Telemedicine Satisfaction Questionnaire (TSQ) through the translation, cultural adaptation and content validation of the original instrument. TSQ (14 questions) evaluates the patient satisfaction with telemedicine, through assessing quality of care provided, similarity to face-to-face encounter and perception of the interaction.

METHODS: The study was conducted in three phases: forward translation (English to Romanian), back-translation to the English and pilot-testing using cognitive interviewing techniques, respecting the WHO methodology. Two independent translators were involved in the first phase. The reconciled translation of Romanian TSQ was included in the second phase of back-translation. Other two English and Romanian native speakers proposed an English version of TSQ that was compared with the original instrument for consistency of translation. The Romanian version was evaluated in the pilot-testing phase to improve understanding of the translated instrument.

RESULTS: The provisional forward Romanian questionnaire was pilot tested and administrated to a sample of 22 healthy individuals, unfamiliar with the instrument. The mean age of the respondents was 42.36 (SD=16.1), 54% were female, mostly married (75%). The questionnaire was easy to complete (average time=3.2, SD=1.2 minutes), 95% stated that did not have any difficulties completing it and 100% indicated that there were no upsetting questions, with an acceptable style of questioning and format of the questionnaire.

CONCLUSIONS: The Romanian TSQ can be a useful tool in the future research of different telemedicine programs in Romania.