Abstract
BackgroundDoctors’ interactions with and attitudes toward e-patients have an overall impact on health care delivery.ObjectiveThis study aimed to gauge surgeons’ interactions with e-patients, their attitudes toward those e-patient activities, the possible impact on the delivery of health care, and the reasons behind those activities and attitudes.MethodsWe created a paper-based and electronic survey form based on pertinent variables identified in the literature, and from March 2018 to July 2018 we surveyed 49 surgeons in Germany and 59 surgeons in Oman, asking them about their interactions with and attitudes toward e-patients. Data were stored in Microsoft Excel and SPSS, and descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and chi-square tests were performed on the data.ResultsOf our sample, 71% (35/49) of the German surgeons and 56% (33/59) of the Omani surgeons communicated electronically with their patients. Although the German surgeons spent a greater percentage of Internet usage time on work-related activities (χ218=32.5; P=.02) than the Omani surgeons, there were many similarities in their activities. An outstanding difference was that the German surgeons used email with their patients more than the Omani surgeons (χ21=9.0; P=.003), and the Omani surgeons used social media, specifically WhatsApp, more than the German surgeons (χ21=18.6; P<.001). Overall, the surgeons were equally positive about the most common e-patient activities such as bringing material from the internet to the consultation (mean 4.11, SD 1.6), although the German surgeons (mean 3.43, SD 1.9) were more concerned (P=.001) than the Omani surgeons (mean 2.32, SD 1.3) about the potential loss of control and time consumption (German: mean 5.10, SD 1.4 and Omani: mean 3.92, SD 1.6; P<.001).ConclusionsThe interactions show a high degree of engagement with e-patients. The differences between the German and the Omani surgeons in the preferred methods of communication are possibly closely linked to cultural differences and recent historical events. These differences may, moreover, indicate e-patients’ desired method of electronic communication to include social media. The low impact of surgeons’ attitudes on the activities may also result from a normalization of many e-patient activities, irrespective of the doctors’ attitudes and influences.
Highlights
Atomic Robot Man, 5” high, Japan, 1948The key question we must ask is not what technology will be like in the future, but rather, what we will be like... —Sherry TurkleI collect old toy robots
While we are by no means ready to dot all the I's or cross all the T’s, we strongly suspect that the principal protagonist of our next-generation healthcare system will not be a computerized doctor, but a well-wired patient
We have found this three-part division helpful when attempting to interpret the results of e-patient surveys, for it can help us understand and appreciate the diversity and complexity of the emerging world of online health resources and the role they play in the lives of contemporary citizens
Summary
For the healthcare of the future—if it is to survive—will be as novel and unexpected to those of us trained as clinicians in 20th century medicine as today’s computer-toting knowledge workers would have been to the social planners of the 1940s and 50s. We hope that the chapters that follow provide our readers with some interesting and useful perspectives on these questions. I The term “knowledge worker” was first introduced by Peter Drucker in his book, The Effective Executive (1966). For an excellent overview of the rise of the knowledge worker in western society, see: Peter F. “Knowledge Work and Knowledge Society: The Social Transformations of this Century, The 1994 Edwin L. Ii Anonymous, “An Interview with: Professor Sherry Turkle,” Open Door: Ideas and Voices from MIT, MIT Alumni Association, July/August 2003. Available at http://alumweb.mit.edu/opendoor/200307/turkle.shtml. (Accessed on March 8, 2005)
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