0920-24ID Travel Med Specialists - Interview Guide

OMB Approved

Control No. 0920-1154

Exp. 3/31/2026

INTERVIEW GUIDE

In-Depth Interviews with Travel Medicine Specialists

July 2024

1. Background and Privacy Policy 3 minutes

1. Thank you for speaking with me today. My name is [NAME]. I’m an independent interviewer with KRC Research. I’ll be leading our conversation today, which will last 60 minutes.

2. The sole sponsor of this interview is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—CDC. Our conversation will focus on a health topic. However, I’m not a CDC employee or a subject matter expert on the topics we’ll be discussing.

3. Your participation is voluntary and you can end your participation at any time.

4. There are no wrong answers, I am simply interested in your honest opinion. You may choose not to answer any question for any reason..

5. Because privacy is important, I’m going to read our Privacy Policy to you. READ:

• We will protect your privacy for today’s discussion, and nothing you say will be reported in association with your name or other personally identifiable information.

• Your name will not be included in any reports. We are talking to multiple health care providers. Comments from everyone will be compiled into a single report for the project sponsor and will be for internal use only.

• So that I don’t have to take notes, I’ll be audio and video recording our conversation, so we have an accurate record for reporting. Once the recording has been transcribed and checked and the project is complete, we will destroy the recording.

• We ask that you not share any information from today’s discussion with others.

6. Do you have any questions about what I’ve shared so far?

7. Do you agree to these policies and still want to participate?

2. Participant Introductions 2 minutes

1. Your first or preferred name.

2. Where you are located.

3. What type of practice setting you work at, and anything useful to know about it.

3. Patient Profile 8 minutes

Our conversation will focus on travel medicine, which is the prevention and management of health problems associated with travel. I understand you have a specialty in this area. Is that correct? CONFIRM

In our conversation, I’d like to focus on just on travel medicine. So, for example, when I mention “patients” or “travelers,” I am referring only to travel medicine patients.

4. In a given week, how often do you see travelers in your clinics?

5. Are there common profiles of travelers that visit your clinics?

• Are they different from other patients seeking more general primary care?

• What are their demographics? PROBE: race/ethnicity, gender, LGBTQ+, immigrant status, language(s) spoken, income, education, insurance status

• What are their specific health traits? PROBE: healthy, sick, immunocompromised, disabilities

• How many have family considerations for their travel, such as pregnancy, traveling with children or even pets?

6. What are common reasons for travel among the travelers you see? PROBE: Business/work, adventure, vacation, visiting friends and relatives, foreign service

7. How often do you see patients who are immigrants or visiting friends and relatives abroad?

8. Are there any cultural or language barriers when communicating with these patients? How do you overcome those?

9. What else stands out about the travelers you see?

4. Consultation Process and Patient Interactions 5 minutes

10. Tell me about your process for assessing the travel health needs and risks of your patients.

• FURTHER PROBING: Walk me through a typical (or recent) pre-travel visit. How does it go?

• Do you see patients in person, virtually, or both? What mix?

• Who does the traveler see first when they visit?

• What information do you collect from all patients at the outset?

• How long do you have with a patient?

11. What questions do you ask patients during pre-travel visits? PROBE: Health history, countries visited or visiting, previous experience traveling, reason for travel

12. What questions or concerns do patients raise during their pre-travel visits?

• Do you feel knowledgeable to address these?

• Which questions or concerns are challenging to respond to, if any?

13. What critical factors do you consider when recommending a vaccination or medication before international travel?

• How do patients react to your recommendations?

14. Now I’d like you to focus on post-travel visits. Walk me through a typical (or recent) post-travel visit?

• What steps do you take to diagnose a potential travel-related illness? PROBE: Health history, countries visited, previous experience traveling, reason for travel

5. Resources Used and Needed 10 minutes

Next, I’d like to focus on the travel health resources or tools you might use with patients.

15. What travel health resources or tools do you show or share with your patients directly?

• Why those?

• Where do you go to get these resources?

• When do you share them? PROBE: pre-travel, post-travel

• Are there any other resources you might point patients towards?

16. What other resources or tools are helpful, for you or patients, in educating about travel health risks?

• Why those?

17. Are there any resources or tools you use specifically for educating immigrants or those visiting friends and family?

• Why are those useful?

• Where do you find those?

Now, I’d like to focus on the travel health resources or tools you use personally.

18. Thinking just about yourself, how do you keep up with the latest guidelines and recommendations for travel health?

• What publications or information sources do you read?

• How often do you look at these?

19. Do you ever visit the CDC website for travel health information? How often?

• How useful is the CDC website?

• What pages, sections, or features are most useful?

• What pages, sections, or features are less useful?

• Do you ever recommend it to patients? Which pages or information?

20. Is there anything missing from CDC’s website that you would want to find?

• IF YES: Is that information you get from anywhere else instead? Where?

21. Generally, what types of resources, tools, or information don’t you have that would be helpful?

6. Travel Health Websites 5 minutes

Now I’d like to focus on travel health websites specifically.

22. Do you use any travel health websites? If so, which ones?

• What criteria do you use to evaluate the credibility and reliability of information?

23. When was the last time you visited any of the sites you mentioned?

• What were you looking for?

24. What specific kinds of information are you looking for when using a travel health website?

25. What challenges have you encountered when using travel health websites?

26. What functionalities or tools do you wish travel health websites offered to better support your practice?

7. Website Testing 28 minutes

I’d like to share three CDC webpages and ask you to review. These are live sites you can visit any time. Here’s the first one, which I’ll call Travelers’ Health.

SHARE ON SCREEN AND ALLOW TIME TO REVIEW. FOCUS ON MAIN PAGE AND ALLOW PARTICIPANTS TO GUIDE NAVIGATION TO SUBPAGES.

CDC Travelers’ Health Webpage: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel

27. Have you visited this website within the last year?

    • IF YES: When did you last visit?

    • IF YES: What did you use it for?

28. How helpful [ is the website / would the website be ] for your work?

• How [ do / would ] you use this website in practice?

• Have you or would you direct patients to this website?

29. Is there anything missing from this website?

• Does it cover all the information you or your patients would want or expect to see?

• Is there anything you dislike or find confusing or cumbersome?

• Is there anything else that could be improved?

REPEAT PREVIOUS QUESTIONS FOR NEXT TWO WEBSITES, IN ORDER.

AGAIN, SHOW ONLY MAIN PAGE AND DO NOT NAVIGATE TO SUBPAGES.

CDC Yellow Book Webpage: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/yellowbook-home

CDC Destinations Webpage: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/list

Finally, I’d like you to walk me through how you would complete a few tasks using the CDC webpages we’ve discussed. Feel free to use any of them. Please also talk out loud about your thought process as you proceed.

SHARE PRECEDING THREE LINKS WITH PARTICIPANT

30. First, let’s say your patient is visiting Cambodia. What information might you look for to share with them and where you would look for it?

31. Now, imagine your patient is planning a hike near Mount Everest, at the China-Nepal border. What would you look for and where would you look for it?

32. Next, let’s say your patient is pregnant and plans to visit family in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. What would you look for and where would you look for it?

8. Wrap Up 2 minutes

33. To wrap up, if you could advise CDC about how to better communicate travel health information to you or your patient population, what advice would you share?

Public reporting burden of this collection of information is estimated to average 60 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.  An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB Control Number.  Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to CDC/ATSDR Reports Clearance Officer, 1600 Clifton Road NE, MS H21-8, Atlanta, Georgia 30333; ATTN: PRA 0920-1154.

Interview Guide – Travel Medicine Specialist IDIs 1