General Practitioners' Perceptions Towards the Use of Wearable Electronic Health Monitoring Devices: A Qualitative Analysis on Risks and Benefits (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The rapid diffusion of wearable electronic health monitoring devices (‘wearable devices’ or ‘wearables’) among lay populations shows that self-tracking and self-monitoring are pervasively expanding, while influencing health-related practices. General practitioners (GPs) are confronted with this phenomenon, since they often are the expert-voice that patients will seek. OBJECTIVE This article aims to explore GPs perspectives on the benefits and risks related to wearable devices and examine their views on their future development of these devices. METHODS Results were collected during a professional symposium among 19 Swiss GPs through mind maps, an innovative methodology in qualitative research that allows for time-efficient data-collection and presentation. RESULTS Data analysis highlighted that wearable devices were often described as user-friendly, adaptable devices, that could enable performance monitoring and support medical research. Benefits included: support for patients’ empowerment and education; behaviour change facilitation; better awareness of personal medical history and body functioning; efficient information-transmission and connection with the patient’s medical network. However, GPs were concerned by the lack of solid scientific validation, lack of clarity over data protection, and the risk of stakeholders’ predominant financial interests around their diffusion. Other perceived risks included the promotion of an overly medicalised, anxiogenic health-culture, and the risk of supporting patients’ self-diagnostic and self-medicating practices. GPs also feared an increased pressure on their workload and the general compromising of the doctor-patient relationship. Finally, they raised important questions on wearable devices’ design and development in the future, highlighting a need for GPs’ and medical professional to be involved in the process. CONCLUSIONS Wearable devices play a more central role in the development of health-practices in daily life, while also affecting the doctor-patient relationship. It is therefore essential to clarify the underpinning logics behind the development and marketing of such devices, whose extensive use may not necessarily be desirable from the GPs’ perspective. This article provides some insights that should be considered in the context of product design, development and distribution, for wearable devices to make a positive impact on general practice.