scholarly journals The Rise of the Empowered Physician in the Digital Health Era: Viewpoint (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertalan Mesko ◽  
Zsuzsa Győrffy
Keyword(s):  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Healing Process ◽  
Patient Empowerment ◽  
Medical Professional ◽  
Physician Patient Relationship ◽  
Technological Transformation ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
The Cost

UNSTRUCTURED Being a 21st-century health care provider is extremely demanding. The growing number of chronic diseases, lack of medical workforce, increasing amounts of administrative tasks, the cost of medical treatment, and rising life expectancy result in an immense challenge for medical professionals. This transformation has been triggered by the growing presence of digital health. Digital health does not only refer to technological transformation; it also fundamentally reshapes the physician-patient relationship and treatment circumstances. We argue that patient empowerment, the spread of digital health, the biopsychosocial-digital approach, and the disappearance of the ivory tower of medicine lead to a new role for physicians. Digital health allows the job of being a medical professional to become more rewarding and creative. The characteristics of a physician-as-idol could shift from self-confident to curious, from rule follower to creative, and from lone hero to team worker. Empowered physicians (e-physicians) can be described as “electronic,” where they use digital technologies in their practice with ease; “enabled,” where they are enabled by regulations and guidelines; and “empowered,” where they are empowered by technologies that support their job and their empowered patients (e-patients). They can be described as “experts” in the use of technologies in their practice or in knowing the best, most reliable, and trustworthy digital health sources and technologies. They can also be described as “engaged,” when understanding the feelings and points of view of their patients, giving relevant feedback, and involving them throughout the whole healing process. The skills and approaches that characterize this era of e-physicians, such as face-to-face communication skills, digital literacy, interdisciplinarity, knowing where to find information, translating large amounts of data into insights for patients, among others, should always have been at the core of practicing medicine. However, the economical, technological, and administrative burden of the profession has not made it possible for most physicians to enjoy the benefits of their training, individual capabilities, and creativity. By understanding how digital health technologies can support or augment their capabilities, physicians would have the chance to practice the art of medicine like never before.

scholarly journals Opinion leader empowered patients about the era of digital health: a qualitative study

BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. e025267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertalan Meskó ◽  
Nóra Radó ◽  
Zsuzsa Győrffy
Keyword(s):  
Driving Forces ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Patient Empowerment ◽  
Opinion Leader ◽  
Patient Relationship ◽  
Physician Patient Relationship ◽  
Qualitative Interview Study ◽  
The Future ◽  
Physician Patient

ObjectivesWe aimed to explore the opinion leader empowered patients’ relationship with their medical professionals, their experiences and beliefs about technologies, and how they see the future. We also attempted to determine whether technologies, the access to it or patient empowerment are the main driving forces behind these changes.DesignA qualitative interview study analysed with interpretative phenomenological analysis.SettingAll interviews were conducted and recorded individually with the same trained interviewer via a Skype call.ParticipantsThe study is based on qualitative, semistructured interviews with 11 opinion leader empowered patients from six countries including UK, USA, Australia, Sweden, South Africa and Ireland.ResultsWe identified four superordinate themes emerging from e-patients’ experiences: (1) impact of technology, (2) the meaning of empowerment, (3) the changing physician–patient relationship and (4) expectations for the future. The relationship e-patients have with their physicians is based on efficient communication, proactivity, the desire for asking questions and the use of technologies. The interviews have shown that the rapid development of technology has fundamentally changed the lives of these e-patients, and technology eventually is transforming the physician–patient relationship into a partnership. Regarding the future of the physician–patient partnership, e-patients emphasised that change will rather be cultural than technological.ConclusionsThe interviews have shown that cooperation between technology and healthcare is not enough on its own: the most decisive factor is the return of the human touch and reciprocal communication. All of these suggest that technology is an important ally in the ‘renaissance of medicine’ that starts to treat patients as it should have always had.

scholarly journals Exploring the barriers and facilitators for the use of digital health technologies for the management of COPD: a qualitative study of clinician perceptions

QJM ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Slevin ◽  
T Kessie ◽  
J Cullen ◽  
M W Butler ◽  
S C Donnelly ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Resource Constraints ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
User Involvement ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Barriers And Facilitators ◽  
Chronic Obstructive ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
University Hospitals ◽  
Health Technologies

Abstract Background Digital health technology (DHT) promises to support patients and healthcare professionals (HCPs) to optimize the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, there is a lack of evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of DHT for the management of COPD. One reason for this is the lack of user-involvement in the development of DHT interventions in COPD meaning their needs and preferences are rarely accounted for in the design phase. Although HCP adoption issues have been identified in relation to DHT, little is known about the challenges perceived by HCPs providing care to COPD patients. Therefore, this study aims to qualitatively explore the barriers and facilitators HCPs perceive for the use of DHT in the management of COPD. Methods Participants (n = 32) were recruited using snowball sampling from two university hospitals and several general practitioner clinics. A semi-structured interview was conducted with each participant. NVivo 12 software was used to complete thematic analysis on the data. Results Themes identified include: data quality; evidence-based care; resource constraints; and digital literacy presented as barriers; and facilitators include the following themes: digital health training and education; improving HCP digital literacy; and Personalized prescribing. Patient-centered approaches, such as pulmonary rehabilitation and shared decision-making were suggested as implementation strategies to ease the adoption of digital health for the management of COPD. Conclusion These findings contribute new insights about the needs and preferences of HCPs working in COPD regarding DHT. The findings can be used to help mitigate user-experience issues by informing the design of person-centered implementation and adoption strategies for future digital health interventions in COPD.

scholarly journals A Primer on Usability Assessment Approaches for Health-Related Applications of Virtual Reality (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Zhang ◽  
Richard Booth ◽  
Royce Jean-Louis ◽  
Ryan Chan ◽  
Anthony Yeung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Usability Testing ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Medical Professional ◽  
Patient Treatment ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Health Related

UNSTRUCTURED Health-related virtual reality (VR) applications for patient treatment, rehabilitation, and medical professional training are on the rise. However, there is little guidance on how to select and perform usability evaluations for VR health interventions compared to the supports that exist for other digital health technologies. The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to present an introductory summary of various usability testing approaches or methods that can be used for VR applications. Along with an overview of each, a list of resources is provided for readers to obtain additionally relevant information. Six categories of VR usability evaluations are described using a previously developed classification taxonomy specific to VR environments: (1) cognitive or task walkthrough, (2) graphical evaluation, (3) post hoc questionnaires or interviews, (4) physical performance evaluation, (5) user interface evaluation, and (6) heuristic evaluation. Given the growth of VR in health care, rigorous evaluation and usability testing is crucial in the development and implementation of novel VR interventions. The approaches outlined in this paper provide a starting point for conducting usability assessments for health-related VR applications; however, there is a need to also move beyond these to adopt those from the gaming industry, where assessments for both usability and user experience are routinely conducted.

Remote Monitoring of Patient- and Family-Generated Health Data in Pediatrics

PEDIATRICS ◽  
2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Foster ◽  
Dana Schinasi ◽  
Kristin Kan ◽  
Michelle Macy ◽  
Derek Wheeler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Health Care Team ◽  
Models Of Care ◽  
Health Data ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
Health Technologies

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is a form of telemedicine that involves the collection and transmission of health data from a patient to their health care team by using digital health technologies. RPM can be leveraged to aggregate and visualize longitudinal patient-generated health data for proactive clinical management and engagement of the patient and family in a child’s health care. Collection of remote data has been considered standard of care for years in some chronic pediatric conditions. However, software limitations, gaps in access to the Internet and technology devices, digital literacy, insufficient reimbursement, and other challenges have prevented expansion of RPM in pediatric medicine on a wide scale. Recent technological advances in remote devices and software, coupled with a shift toward virtual models of care, have created a need to better understand how RPM can be leveraged in pediatrics to improve the health of more children, especially for children with special health care needs who are reliant on high-quality chronic disease management. In this article, we define RPM for the general pediatric health care provider audience, provide case examples of existing RPM models, discuss advantages of and limitations to RPM (including how data are collected, evaluated, and managed), and provide a list of current RPM resources for clinical practitioners. Finally, we propose considerations for expansion of this health care delivery approach for children, including clinical infrastructure, equitable access to digital health care, and necessary reimbursement. The overarching goal is to advance health for children by adapting RPM technologies as appropriate and beneficial for patients, families, and providers alike.

scholarly journals From Precision Metapharmacology to Patient Empowerment: Delivery of Self-Care Practices for Epilepsy, Pain, Depression and Cancer Using Digital Health Technologies

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Bulaj ◽  
Jacqueline Clark ◽  
Maryam Ebrahimi ◽  
Elizabeth Bald
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Diseases ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Patient Empowerment ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Combination Therapies ◽  
Lifestyle Modifications ◽  
Pharmacological Interventions ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Breathing Exercises

To improve long-term outcomes of therapies for chronic diseases, health promotion and lifestyle modifications are the most promising and sustainable strategies. In addition, advances in digital technologies provide new opportunities to address limitations of drug-based treatments, such as medication non-adherence, adverse effects, toxicity, drug resistance, drug shortages, affordability, and accessibility. Pharmaceutical drugs and biologics can be combined with digital health technologies, including mobile medical apps (digital therapeutics), which offer additional clinical benefits and cost-effectiveness. Promises of drug+digital combination therapies are recognized by pharmaceutical and digital health companies, opening opportunities for integrating pharmacotherapies with non-pharmacological interventions (metapharmacology). Herein we present unique features of digital health technologies which can deliver personalized self-care modalities such as breathing exercises, mindfulness meditation, yoga, physical activity, adequate sleep, listening to preferred music, forgiveness and gratitude. Clinical studies reveal how aforementioned complimentary practices may support treatments of epilepsy, chronic pain, depression, cancer, and other chronic diseases. This article also describes how digital therapies delivering “medicinal” self-care and other non-pharmacological interventions can also be personalized by accounting for: 1) genetic risks for comorbidities, 2) adverse childhood experiences, 3) increased risks for viral infections such as seasonal influenza, or COVID-19, and 4) just-in-time stressful and traumatic circumstances. Development and implementation of personalized pharmacological-behavioral combination therapies (precision metapharmacology) require aligning priorities of key stakeholders including patients, research communities, healthcare industry, regulatory and funding agencies. In conclusion, digital technologies enable integration of pharmacotherapies with self-care, lifestyle interventions and patient empowerment, while concurrently advancing patient-centered care, integrative medicine and digital health ecosystems.

scholarly journals How Women Use Digital Technologies for Health: Qualitative Interview and Focus Group Study (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Lupton ◽  
Sarah Maslen
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Online Social Networks ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Health Related

BACKGROUND A range of digital technologies are available to lay people to find, share, and generate health-related information. Few studies have directed attention specifically to how women are using these technologies from the diverse array available to them. Even fewer have focused on Australian women’s use of digital health. OBJECTIVE The Australian Women and Digital Health Project aimed to investigate which types of digital technologies women used regularly for health-related purposes and which they found most helpful and useful. Qualitative methods—semistructured interviews and focus groups—were employed to shed light on the situated complexities of the participants’ enactments of digital health technologies. The project adopted a feminist new materialism theoretical perspective, focusing on the affordances, relational connections, and affective forces that came together to open up or close off the agential capacities generated with and through these enactments. METHODS The project comprised two separate studies including a total of 66 women. In study 1, 36 women living in the city of Canberra took part in face-to-face interviews and focus groups, while study 2 involved telephone interviews with 30 women from other areas of Australia. RESULTS The affordances of search engines to locate health information and websites and social media platforms for providing information and peer support were highly used and valued. Affective forces such as the desire for trust, motivation, empowerment, reassurance, control, care, and connection emerged in the participants’ accounts. Agential capacities generated with and through digital health technologies included the capacity to seek and generate information and create a better sense of knowledge and expertise about bodies, illness, and health care, including the women’s own bodies and health, that of their families and friends, and that of their often anonymous online social networks. The participants referred time and again to appreciating the feelings of agency and control that using digital health technologies afforded them. When the technologies failed to work as expected, these agential capacities were not realized. Women responded with feelings of frustration, disappointment, and annoyance, leading them to become disenchanted with the possibilities of the digital technologies they had tried. CONCLUSIONS The findings demonstrate the nuanced and complex ways in which the participants were engaging with and contributing to online sources of information and using these sources together with face-to-face encounters with doctors and other health care professionals and friends and family members. They highlight the lay forms of expertise that the women had developed in finding, assessing, and creating health knowledges. The study also emphasized the key role that many women play in providing advice and health care for family members not only as digitally engaged patients but also as digitally engaged carers.

scholarly journals Implementing virtual experiences and remote assessments during the COVID-19 pandemic: A college experience

2020 ◽  
pp. 54-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.N. Daftary ◽  
J. Jorden ◽  
M. Habib ◽  
I. Pather ◽  
T. Tofade
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Decision Making ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Clinical Decision ◽  
Academic Planning ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Howard University ◽  
Virtual Experiences ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Student Reflections ◽  
Remote Learning

With nine weeks remaining in the term, COVID-19 necessitated emergency remote learning and remote online exams. This required a series of software trainings for administrators, faculty and students at Howard University College of Pharmacy, USA. The experiential department also had to look beyond normal clerkship placements. The described telemedicine and virtual experiences were used to supplement face-to-face experiences. Assessments for both learning innovations were successful, based on faculty and student feedback. Student reflections describe how COVID-19 helped advance the use of telehealth and indicate their learning of clinical decision-making skills, effective communication, and the digital health industry. A formal evaluation of outcomes from the implemented pandemic innovations is being planned. The use of online proctoring with artificial intelligence during the emergency remote learning was successful. With software training, this type of service can be adopted to ensure the integrity of assessments. The cost of the service and the reporting time should be considered in academic planning.

scholarly journals Digital Literacy: A Barrier to Adoption of Connected Health Technologies in Older Adults (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Gualtieri ◽  
Jeffrey Phillips ◽  
Sandra Rosenbluth ◽  
Steph Synoracki
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Barriers To Adoption ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Smartphone Use ◽  
Effective Use

BACKGROUND Adoption and effective use of digital health technologies is especially important for older adults, who bear the greatest burden of chronic disease. However, some older adults lack the digital literacy skills needed to reap the benefits of these tools. Despite the greater infiltration of smartphones in all age groups, including older adults, smartphone ownership does not equate to adept smartphone use. Impediments to smartphone use can impede adoption and use of digital health technologies that rely on apps. OBJECTIVE Our objectives were to 1) determine the barriers to adoption and use of digital health technologies, specifically wearable activity trackers, by older adults; and 2) identify and test facilitators to adoption and use. METHODS We recruited more than 100 older adults aged 50-75 who owned a smartphone for our tracker studies. We provided each participant with a tracker and hands-on support for its setup and use. Support was tailored to each participant’s level of comfort and adeptness with his or her smartphone and new tracker, with the goal of having participants leave with a working tracker and an app they could engage with. RESULTS While all participants owned a smartphone, we identified several barriers to successful engagement with their own smartphones as well as with their new trackers. Some older model or pay-as-you-go phones could not download apps. Many participants required assistance to download and setup an app, as well as sync their tracker to the app. In several cases, the use of jargon such as “sync with Bluetooth” required an explanation. Some app features required guidance, such as changing the default of 10,000 steps to one that was more achievable and realistic for older adults. Furthermore, the design of some tracker faces and bands were preferred or more comfortable for participants. We found that once participants were able to overcome barriers to setup through hands-on training, other facilitators, such as a visual reminder of their commitment to physical activity and the immediate gratification of seeing their activity reflected in the tracker and the app, kept them engaged with the tracker. CONCLUSIONS The digital health market is growing rapidly and has great potential to improve health outcomes, yet it is failing to reach and meet the needs of older adults. Poor digital literacy skills impede adoption of digital health technologies, and their effective use once adopted. While a high-touch approach to helping older adults overcome barriers to adoption and use of digital health technologies has proven to be a successful facilitator in our studies, the challenge is in bringing this approach to scale and applying it to both consumer- and medical-grade technologies. In future studies, we hope to build on this knowledge and further identify design and training solutions that can be scaled to increase successful engagement of digital health technologies by older adults.

scholarly journals A Primer on Usability Assessment Approaches for Health-Related Applications of Virtual Reality

10.2196/18153 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. e18153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Zhang ◽  
Richard Booth ◽  
Royce Jean-Louis ◽  
Ryan Chan ◽  
Anthony Yeung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Usability Testing ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Medical Professional ◽  
Patient Treatment ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Health Related

Health-related virtual reality (VR) applications for patient treatment, rehabilitation, and medical professional training are on the rise. However, there is little guidance on how to select and perform usability evaluations for VR health interventions compared to the supports that exist for other digital health technologies. The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to present an introductory summary of various usability testing approaches or methods that can be used for VR applications. Along with an overview of each, a list of resources is provided for readers to obtain additionally relevant information. Six categories of VR usability evaluations are described using a previously developed classification taxonomy specific to VR environments: (1) cognitive or task walkthrough, (2) graphical evaluation, (3) post hoc questionnaires or interviews, (4) physical performance evaluation, (5) user interface evaluation, and (6) heuristic evaluation. Given the growth of VR in health care, rigorous evaluation and usability testing is crucial in the development and implementation of novel VR interventions. The approaches outlined in this paper provide a starting point for conducting usability assessments for health-related VR applications; however, there is a need to also move beyond these to adopt those from the gaming industry, where assessments for both usability and user experience are routinely conducted.

scholarly journals Digital Technology for Remote Hearing Assessment—Current Status and Future Directions for Consumers

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 10124
Author(s):  
Karina C. De Sousa ◽  
David R. Moore ◽  
Cas Smits ◽  
De Wet Swanepoel
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Traditional Service ◽  
Hearing Assessment ◽  
Delivery Models

Globally, more than 1.5 billion people have hearing loss. Unfortunately, most people with hearing loss reside in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where traditional face-to-face services rendered by trained health professionals are few and unequally dispersed. The COVID-19 pandemic has further hampered the effectiveness of traditional service delivery models to provide hearing care. Digital health technologies are strong enablers of hearing care and can support health delivery models that are more sustainable. The convergence of advancing technology and mobile connectivity is enabling new ways of providing decentralized hearing services. Recently, an abundance of digital applications that offer hearing tests directly to the public has become available. A growing body of evidence has shown the ability of several approaches to provide accurate, accessible, and remote hearing assessment to consumers. Further effort is needed to promote greater accuracy across a variety of test platforms, improve sensitivity to ear disease, and scale up hearing rehabilitation, especially in LMICs.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document