Abstract
Background and objectives: With the digitalization of modern healthcare delivery, digital media adoption in clinical practice is increasing. Also, healthcare professionals are more and more confronted with patients using smartphone-based health applications (apps). This exploratory study aimed at surveying perceptions on such apps in the context of lung health among a cross section of Austrian practitioners involved in pulmonary care. Materials and Methods: The online questionnaire in German assessed socio-demographic characteristics, telehealth readiness as well as opinions on smoke-free and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) apps. We used descriptive statistics to report the finding. Results: We received valid responses from 55 participants (mean age 52.3 years, 69.1% males). Telehealth readiness was medium, indicating existence of certain barriers adversely impacting telehealth use. As for apps targeting smoking cessation and COPD, respondents indicated high relevance for visualization aspects for patients and control/overview features for the treating doctors. Only 40% of participants indicated that they would recommend a COPD app to an older patient. Conclusions: In smoking cessation therapy, doctors commonly adhere to the “5 A’s”: Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange. We suggest adding “App” as sixth A, assuming that in patient follow-up most of the other A’s could also be supported or even replaced by app features in the challenging task to tackle smoking-associated non-communicable diseases.
Highlights
Telehealth, or telemedicine, refers to the use of IT for remote personalized care, treatment, and prevention [1,2]
Average age of study participants was 52.3 (SD 10.6, range 31–76 years), 69.1% were male, 34.6% lived in Vienna, 78.2% indicated they live in an urban area, and almost all participants used smartphones (96.4%, Table 1)
COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In this online survey among a cross-section of Austrian practitioners, we identified perceptions on health app features and benefits, telehealth readiness, and scenarios on smoke-free and COPD apps
Summary
Telehealth, or telemedicine, refers to the use of IT for remote personalized care, treatment, and prevention [1,2]. Healthcare professionals are more and more confronted with patients using smartphone-based health applications (apps). This exploratory study aimed at surveying perceptions on such apps in the context of lung health among a cross section of Austrian practitioners involved in pulmonary care. Materials and Methods: The online questionnaire in German assessed socio-demographic characteristics, telehealth readiness as well as opinions on smoke-free and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) apps. As for apps targeting smoking cessation and COPD, respondents indicated high relevance for visualization aspects for patients and control/overview features for the treating doctors. We suggest adding “App” as sixth A, assuming that in patient follow-up most of the other A’s could be supported or even replaced by app features in the challenging task to tackle smoking-associated non-communicable diseases
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