eHealth and telemedicine: Practices and beliefs among healthcare professionals and medical students at a medical university

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Digitalization affects almost every aspect of modern daily life including healthcare delivery. Successful adoption and sustainable integration of information technology-based eHealth and telemedicine concepts in clinical practice depend on constant evaluation of end user needs, proficiencies, and preferences. We therefore assessed how current and future healthcare professionals perceived health technology solutions and whether their perceptions differed. We conducted an online survey among a purposive sample of employees and students at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. The structured questionnaire collected self-reported practices and beliefs in the context of eHealth and telemedicine among 905 participants (59.0% females), of which 48.4% were employees and 51.6% were students. Participants expressed moderate knowledge of eHealth and telemedicine concepts with higher levels among employees compared to students (both: p<0.05). Compared to employees, students were less convinced that online health information improves patient knowledge (p<0.001), but were more optimistic that telemedicine reduces healthcare costs (p<0.05). Participants doubted that telemedicine services would enhance the doctor-patient relationship and raised concerns regarding data security and privacy issues. Accordingly, quantitative context analysis of free text comments revealed that the four most frequently mentioned themes were related to issues concerning data privacy and security, questions of responsibility, doctor-patient interaction, and reliability of information. This study provides valuable insights into how current and future healthcare professionals differ in their perceptions regarding eHealth and telemedicine. These findings raise awareness of the need to bridge the gap between digital age groups and professional groups, especially in clinical healthcare delivery in a clocked-through, strenuous academic setting as found at a medical university.

Related collections

Most cited references 36

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: found

Is Open Access

Barriers to the acceptance of electronic medical records by physicians from systematic review to taxonomy and interventions

Albert Boonstra, Manda Broekhuis (2010)

Background The main objective of this research is to identify, categorize, and analyze barriers perceived by physicians to the adoption of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) in order to provide implementers with beneficial intervention options. Methods A systematic literature review, based on research papers from 1998 to 2009, concerning barriers to the acceptance of EMRs by physicians was conducted. Four databases, "Science", "EBSCO", "PubMed" and "The Cochrane Library", were used in the literature search. Studies were included in the analysis if they reported on physicians' perceived barriers to implementing and using electronic medical records. Electronic medical records are defined as computerized medical information systems that collect, store and display patient information. Results The study includes twenty-two articles that have considered barriers to EMR as perceived by physicians. Eight main categories of barriers, including a total of 31 sub-categories, were identified. These eight categories are: A) Financial, B) Technical, C) Time, D) Psychological, E) Social, F) Legal, G) Organizational, and H) Change Process. All these categories are interrelated with each other. In particular, Categories G (Organizational) and H (Change Process) seem to be mediating factors on other barriers. By adopting a change management perspective, we develop some barrier-related interventions that could overcome the identified barriers. Conclusions Despite the positive effects of EMR usage in medical practices, the adoption rate of such systems is still low and meets resistance from physicians. This systematic review reveals that physicians may face a range of barriers when they approach EMR implementation. We conclude that the process of EMR implementation should be treated as a change project, and led by implementers or change managers, in medical practices. The quality of change management plays an important role in the success of EMR implementation. The barriers and suggested interventions highlighted in this study are intended to act as a reference for implementers of Electronic Medical Records. A careful diagnosis of the specific situation is required before relevant interventions can be determined.

0 comments Cited 173 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Determinants of successful telemedicine implementations: a literature study.

Rene van der Heijden, Hermie Hermens, Tom H F Broens … (2006)

Telemedicine implementations often remain in the pilot phase and do not succeed in scaling-up to robust products that are used in daily practice. We conducted a qualitative literature review of 45 conference papers describing telemedicine interventions in order to identify determinants that had influenced their implementation. The identified determinants, which would influence the future implementation of telemedicine interventions, can be classified into five major categories: (1) Technology, (2) Acceptance, (3) Financing, (4) Organization and (5) Policy and Legislation. Each category contains determinants that are relevant to different stakeholders in different domains. We propose a layered implementation model in which the primary focus on individual determinants changes throughout the development life cycle of the telemedicine implementation. For success, a visionary approach is required from the multidisciplinary stakeholders, which goes beyond tackling specific issues in a particular development phase. Thus the right philosophy is: 'start small, think big'.

0 comments Cited 120 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Internet use by the public to search for health-related information.

Khalid AlGhamdi, Noura A Moussa (2012)

The use of the Internet to search for health-related information (HRI) has become a common practice worldwide. Our literature review failed to find any evidence of previous studies on this topic from Saudi Arabia. To determine the public use of the Internet in Saudi Arabia to search for HRI and to evaluate patients' perceptions of the quality of the information available on the Internet compared to that provided by their health care providers. A self-administered questionnaire about Internet use to search for HRI was distributed randomly to male and female outpatients and visitors attending a public University Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from January to May 2010. A Chi-squared test was used to assess the association between different categorical variables. Multiple logistic regression was used to relate the use of the Internet to search for HRI with various socio-demographic variables. The questionnaire response was 80.1%, with completion of 801 of the 1000 distributed questionnaires; 50% (400/801) of respondents were males. The mean age of respondents was 32±11 years. The majority of respondents used the Internet in general (87.8%), and 58.4% of them (363/622) used the Internet to search for HRI. The majority stated a doctor was their primary source of HRI (89.3%, 654/732). This practice was considered useful by 84.2%, and the main reason behind it was sheer curiosity (92.7%, 418/451). Other reasons included not getting enough information from their doctor (58.5%, 227/413) and not trusting the information given by their doctor (28.2%, 101/443). Forty-four percent (205/466) searched for HRI before coming to the clinic; 72.5% of those discussed the information with their doctors and 71.7% (119/166) of those who did so believed that this positively affected their relationship with their doctor. Searching the Internet for health information was observed more frequently among the 30-39 year age group (OR=2.0, 95% CI 1.1-3.7), females (OR=3.8, 95% CI 2.3-6.4), individuals with university or higher education (OR=1.7, 95% CI 1.1-2.8), employed individuals (OR=2.7, 95% CI 1.4-4.9) and high income groups (OR=2.8, 95% CI 1.5-5.1). A proportion of the public searches the Internet to obtain HRI for various reasons, which could have consequences on their health and relationship with their doctors. Therefore, doctors should be aware of the health information available online to help guide patients to reliable websites. Health authorities should also be aware of the issue to offer regulations and solutions. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

0 comments Cited 69 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Contributors

Anna Wernhart: Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing

Susanne Gahbauer:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0621-5083

Role: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing

Daniela Haluza:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5619-2863

Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: MethodologyRole: Project administrationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing

Otto Helve: Role: Editor

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): PLoS One

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): PLoS ONE

Journal ID (publisher-id): plos

Journal ID (pmc): plosone

Title: PLoS ONE

Publisher: Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )

ISSN (Electronic): 1932-6203

Publication date (Electronic): 28 February 2019

Publication date Collection: 2019

Volume: 14

Issue: 2

Electronic Location Identifier: e0213067

Affiliations

[1 ] Medical University of Vienna, Center for Public Health, Department of Environmental Health, Vienna, Austria

[2 ] Medical University of Vienna, Center for Public Health, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Vienna, Austria

University of Helsinki, FINLAND

Author notes

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

* E-mail: daniela.haluza@ 123456meduniwien.ac.at

Author information

Susanne Gahbauer http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0621-5083

Daniela Haluza http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5619-2863

Article

Publisher ID: PONE-D-18-21143

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213067

PMC ID: 6394957

PubMed ID: 30818348

SO-VID: c0be6c97-9a82-4542-aa4d-624dd8d2404d

License:

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

History

Date received : 17 July 2018

Date accepted : 15 February 2019

Page count

Figures: 0, Tables: 4, Pages: 13

Funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.

Custom metadata

Data Availability All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.

eHealth and telemedicine: Practices and beliefs among healthcare professionals and medical students at a medical university

Read this article at

Abstract

Related collections

PLOS Climate

Most cited references 36

Barriers to the acceptance of electronic medical records by physicians from systematic review to taxonomy and interventions

Determinants of successful telemedicine implementations: a literature study.

Internet use by the public to search for health-related information.

Author and article information

Contributors

Journal

Affiliations

Author notes

Author information

Article

History

Page count

Funding

Categories

Custom metadata

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 636

Cited by 46

Most referenced authors 466