Acceptance and status of digitalization in clinics and practices : Current assessment in German urology

Abstract

Digitalization of patient documentation and introduction of the electronic patient record (ePA) pose challenges to everyday clinical practice. We investigated the acceptance and status of the digitalization of patient data and the introduction of the ePA among German urologists. Aquestionnaire with 30questions about the acceptance and status of digitalization of patient documentation and ePA was sent out via the newsletter of the German Society of Urology. A total of 80urologists participated in the survey (response rate 2%). Digital platforms such as Urotube or Researchgate are used by 63% of participants. The complete implementation of digital patient documentation was reported by 72% of respondents working in medical practice and by 54% of those working in the hospital (p = 0.042). While 76% see the digitalization process as reasonable, 34% expressed partial or strong concerns about the complete digitalization of patient documentation. Only 14% of the participants offer video consultations. Advantages for ePA include better networking of the healthcare system (73%), improved diagnosis, indication (41%) and treatment quality (48%), and avoidance of medication errors (70%). German urologists are open to the digitalization process and ePA. Especially younger urologists are using digital media. The advantages of digitalization are, in particular, an improvement in treatment processes. For asmooth introduction, across-departmental establishment and, if necessary, an adaptation of the treatment processes are necessary.