Abstract
BackgroundeHealth applications for out-of-hospital monitoring and treatment follow-up have been advocated for many years as a promising tool to improve treatment compliance, promote individualized care and obtain a person-centred care. Despite these benefits and a large number of promising projects, a major breakthrough in everyday care is generally still lacking. Inappropriate organization for eHealth technology, reluctance from users in the introduction of new working methods, and resistance to information and communication technology (ICT) in general could be reasons for this. Another reason may be attitudes towards the potential in out-of-hospital eHealth applications. It is therefore of interest to study the general opinions among healthcare professionals to ICT in healthcare, as well as the attitudes towards using ICT as a tool for patient monitoring and follow-up at home. One specific area of interest is in-home follow-up of elderly patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). The aim of this paper is to investigate the attitudes towards ICT, as well as distance monitoring and follow-up, among healthcare professionals working with this patient group.MethodThis paper covers an attitude survey study based on responses from 139 healthcare professionals working with CHF care in Swedish hospital departments, i.e. cardiology and medicine departments. Comparisons between physicians and nurses, and in some cases between genders, on attitudes towards ICT tools and follow-up at home were performed.ResultsOut of the 425 forms sent out, 139 were collected, and 17 out of 21 counties and regions were covered in the replies. Among the respondents, 66% were nurses, 30% physicians and 4% others. As for gender, 90% of nurses were female and 60% of physicians were male. Internet was used daily by 67% of the respondents. Attitudes towards healthcare ICT were found positive as 74% were positive concerning healthcare ICT today, 96% were positive regarding the future of healthcare ICT, and 54% had high confidence in healthcare ICT. Possibilities for distance monitoring/follow-up are good according to 63% of the respondents, 78% thought that this leads to increased patient involvement, and 80% thought it would improve possibilities to deliver better care. Finally, 72% of the respondents said CHF patients would benefit from home monitoring/follow-up to some extent, and 19% to a large extent. However, the best method of follow-up was considered to be home visits by nurse, or phone contact.ConclusionThe results indicate that a majority of the healthcare professionals in this study are positive to both current and future use of ICT tools in healthcare and home follow-up. Consequently other factors have to play an important role in the slow penetration of out-of-hospital eHealth applications in daily healthcare practice.
Highlights
Introduction into clinical practiceAltogether our results indicate a general acceptance and positive attitude among healthcare personnel for information and communication technology (ICT) in healthcare and home follow-up of patients
Attitudes towards healthcare ICT were found positive as 74% were positive concerning healthcare ICT today, 96% were positive regarding the future of healthcare ICT, and 54% had high confidence in healthcare ICT
The results indicate that a majority of the healthcare professionals in this study are positive to both current and future use of ICT tools in healthcare and home follow-up
Summary
Introduction into clinical practiceAltogether our results indicate a general acceptance and positive attitude among healthcare personnel for ICT in healthcare and home follow-up of patients. EHealth applications for out-of-hospital monitoring and treatment follow-up have been advocated for many years as promising tools to improve treatment compliance, promote individualized care and obtain a personcentred care As a result this is expected to lead to improved treatment outcome, patient safety and a more efficient use of available resources. Despite these benefits of out-of-hospital monitoring and treatment follow-up, and the large number of promising projects, a more general breakthrough in everyday care and practice is still lacking This could be explained by several factors such as the lack of an appropriate organization for the new technology, reluctance from the users to introduce new ways of working, and negative opinions regarding ICT and the proposed methods in general. To be able to continue the development, and increase the adoption rate, of ICT in healthcare it is of importance to study the general opinions among healthcare professionals with regard to ICT support in out-of-hospital care
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