Meaningful Use Research Articles

From Old to New: Process of Integrating PACU Phase 1 Documentation and Workflow from Old Electronic Health Record (EHR) System to New Electronic Health Record (EHR) System

<h3>Background Information</h3> In 2019, a new Electronic Health Record (EHR) was implemented to standardize and streamline access of patient health records across the health care system. Meaningful use of EHR provides benefits such as safety, quality, and efficiency in patient-care delivery. The adoption of the new EHR system has created significant disruption in the complex workflow of busy units, as well as frustration to users specifically in the usability functions of the new EHR system. This project will outline strategies and processes to ensure that resources are equipped to handle its complexity by employing methods to assist user for seamless transition from an old EHR system to new EHR system in phase 1 PACU. <h3>Objectives of Project</h3> •Identify and create a framework of key elements to bridge the gap in nursing documentation •Provide educational tools focusing on the change in workflow and documentation of clinical pathways •Create an audit tool to address nursing documentation compliance <h3>Process of Implementation</h3> Identified super users to serve as unit resources. Staff training included mandatory learning modules, post-tests, and unlimited practice simulations. All PACU workflow and clinical pathways were reviewed and revised to ensure the necessary "must haves" were included in the new platform. Created tip sheets of new workflow processes. An audit tool was created to address nursing compliance issues and cover key elements of workflow and documentation of clinical pathways. Leveraged use of lean methodology through daily huddle discussion of issues and generating ideas. <h3>Statement of Successful Practice</h3> The goals of the EHR implementation were achieved by familiarizing users with the new system through education, hands-on training, and constant follow through via lean methodology. Success was measured by rate of resolution of issues which achieved 100% by February 2020. Completion rate of RN documentation audits exceeded the set goal by 12.4%. <h3>Implications for Advancing the Practice of Perianesthesia Nursing</h3> Providing the appropriate education and hands-on training served as of great value for successful implementation. The tip sheets created by the team improved effectiveness of user workflow and was spread to several PACU facilities within the healthcare system & vendor for their education and training.

The digitalization of pneumology and the role of medical societies

Medicine is becoming increasingly digitalized. Digital applications are finding their way into health care. The aim of the study was to record the attitudes of members of the German Respiratory Society (DGP) towards digitalization. The study was conducted in cooperation with the DGP, the German Respiratory League and the Health Innovation Hub (HIH) of the German Federal Ministry of Health. Data were gathered with the help of an online questionnaire (July/August 2021), analyzed descriptively and supplemented with a subgroup comparison regarding proactivity of the members. 284 questionnaires were complete and included in the analysis (31% female); 76.4% believed that digitalization would change their daily professional life within five years. 47.2% had prescribed or planned to prescribe Digital Health Applications (DiGA). Lack of technology skills of patients and the time required for health professionals were seen as critical (49.3 and 47.5%). Regarding DiGA, scientific proof of efficacy (48.9%) and ease of use for patients (47.9%) were rated as most important. The subgroup comparison showed that 42.7% actively informed themselves about digital medicine and that this group saw more opportunities for meaningful use of DiGA. The members of the DGP have mostly a positive view about the profound changes expected from digital medicine. The more active the role of DGP members and other professional societies, the more digital elements can add value to practice.

From information systems resources to effective use: Moderating effect of network embeddedness

This research examines how organizations can achieve effective information systems (IS) use by aligning internal IS resources with embeddedness in the IS outsourcing network. Leveraging the empirical opportunity of large-scale organization-wide meaningful use attestation of electronic health records, we conducted a longitudinal analysis of US hospitals from 2013 to 2017. We found that an organization’s network embeddedness amplifies the positive relationship between IS resources and effective IS use. We also identify different impacts depending on network embeddedness types and organization sizes. We found positive moderating effects of structural and positional embeddedness. However, junctional embeddedness has no direct or moderating effect on IS use. In addition, the moderating effects manifest differently for different-sized organizations – i.e., structural embeddedness has a stronger positive moderating effect for large organizations, while positional embeddedness’ positive moderating effect is stronger for small organizations. We also found heterogeneous direct effects of structural and positional embeddedness on organizational IS use. Solely depending on structural embeddedness will result in lower IS use, which is more prominent for small organizations. Positional embeddedness has a negative direct effect on small organizations’ IS use but positively relates to large organizations’ IS use. This research highlights the role of network embeddedness in facilitating IS use and offers a nuanced understanding of its impacts. Our findings also provide practical implications for organizational IS use through strategic IS outsourcing.

Residual Hearing Improves Early Auditory Perception and Speech Intelligibility in Mandarin-Speaking Children with Cochlear Implants.

Background:To investigate the relationship between residual hearing and early auditory speech performance in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants.Methods:Twenty-four prelingually deaf children implanted with a cochlear implants participated in the study. Auditory performance and speech intelligibility were longitudinally evaluated by categories of auditory performance, infant-toddler meaningful auditory integration scale/meaningful auditory integration scale, speech intelligibility rating, and meaningful use of speech scale. According to the postoperative pure tone average threshold, children were grouped as “better” and “worse” residual hearing.Results:Better hearing preservation was observed in 7 children (29.2%) and worse preservation in 17 children (70.8%). The scores of categories of auditory performance, infant-toddler meaningful auditory integration scale/meaningful auditory integration scale, speech intelligibility rating, and meaningful use of speech scalewere higher in children with better residual hearing. The residual hearing level was significantly associated with the performance of meaningful use of speech scale (P = .004), as well as the performance of speech intelligibility rating (P = .049).CONCLUSION:The present study showed that children with better residual hearing exhibited advantages in the early auditory and speech outcomes. The study highlighted the effects of residual hearing on early auditory performance and speech intelligibility development in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants.

Rationality As A Meta-Analytical Capacity of the Human Mind: From the Social Sciences to Gödel

In contrast to dominant approaches to human reason involving essentially a logical and instrumental conception of rationality easily modeled by artificial intelligence mechanisms, I argue that the specific capacities of the human mind are meta-analytic in nature, understood as irreducible to the analytic or the logical, or else the computational. Firstly, the assumption of a meta-analytical level of rationality is derived from key insights developed in various branches of the social sciences. This meta-analytical level is then inferred from Gödel’s incompleteness theorem. On these bases, and with the help of psychological approaches to consciousness, I argue that human rationality may be characterized as the capacity to make meaningful use of signs.

Is there an unmet medical need for improved hearing restoration?

Hearing impairment, the most prevalent sensory deficit, affects more than 466 million people worldwide (WHO). We presently lack causative treatment for the most common form, sensorineural hearing impairment; hearing aids and cochlear implants (CI) remain the only means of hearing restoration. We engaged with CI users to learn about their expectations and their willingness to collaborate with health care professionals on establishing novel therapies. We summarize upcoming CI innovations, gene therapies, and regenerative approaches and evaluate the chances for clinical translation of these novel strategies. We conclude that there remains an unmet medical need for improving hearing restoration and that we are likely to witness the clinical translation of gene therapy and major CI innovations within this decade.

The Role of Esports Organisations in Accessibility for Disability Players

The Indonesian e-sports industry cannot be separated from the role of organizations that oversee and manage all activities of e-sports players, which are expected to provide better accessibility for people with disabilities to be equal in recording achievements in the field of e-sports. This problem is closely related to the increase in internet access and the use of smartphones which are commonly used by people with disabilities, including playing games. This study aims to determine whether e-sports organizations as stakeholders provide accessibility for persons with disabilities. This study uses previous research that analyzed persons with disabilities in various roles in the new media ecosystem. Also, the fact that accessibility refers to the ability of a person with one or more disabilities to make meaningful use of media technology. Standpoint theory is the main theory as the basis and tool for analyzing the results of this study. This research uses a qualitative case study method with data collection techniques through interviews and literature studies and a post-positivist research paradigm. This study indicates that Esports Organizations in Indonesia have not been able to play a role in providing accessibility for gamers with disabilities. Of the three formal organizations, only IESPA has special attention by creating a para-Esports division for people with disabilities. Meanwhile, AVGI &amp; PB ESI do not yet have a specific program. On the other hand, community-based informal organizations such as EAI have a great interest in being able to advocate for gamers with disabilities.&#x0D; Keywords: disability, accessibility, e-sports, new media, organization

Hope in the Age of Dystopia: The Ghost in the Machine in Øyvind Rimbereid's Solaris korrigert

Hope in the Age of Dystopia: The Ghost in the Machine in Øyvind Rimbereid's <i>Solaris korrigert</i>

Making Meaningful Use of Price Transparency Data: Describing Price Variation of Spine Surgery and Imaging in a Single System.

Price transparency is an increasingly popular solution for high healthcare expenditures in the United States, but little is known about its potential to facilitate patient price shopping. Our objective was to analyze interhospital and interpayer price variability in spine surgery and spine imaging using newly public payer-specific negotiated charges (PNCs). We selected a subset of billing codes for spine surgery and spine imaging at 12 hospitals within a Saint Louis metropolitan area healthcare system. We then compared PNCs for these procedures and tested for significant differences in interhospital and interinsurer IQR using the Mann-Whitney U Test. We found significantly greater IQRs of PNCs as a factor of the insurance plan than as a factor of the hospital for cervical spinal fusions (interinsurer IQR $8256; interhospital IQR $533; P < .0001), noncervical spinal fusions (interinsurer IQR $28 423; interhospital IQR $5512; P < .001), computed tomographies of the lower spine (interinsurer IQR $595; interhospital IQR $113; P < .0001), and MRIs lower spinal canal (interinsurer IQR $1010; interhospital IQR $158; P < .0001). There was no significant difference between the interinsurer IQR and the interhospital IQR for lower spine x-rays (interinsurer IQR $107; interhospital IQR $67; P = .0543). Despite some between-hospital heterogeneity, we show significantly higher price variability between insurers than between hospitals. Our single system analysis limits our ability to generalize, but our results suggest that savings depend more on hospital and provider negotiations than patient price shopping, given the difficulty of switching insurers.

Machine Learning-Based Prediction of the Outcomes of Cochlear Implantation in Patients With Cochlear Nerve Deficiency and Normal Cochlea: A 2-Year Follow-Up of 70 Children.

Cochlear nerve deficiency (CND) is often associated with variable outcomes of cochlear implantation (CI). We assessed previous investigations aiming to identify the main factors that determine CI outcomes, which would enable us to develop predictive models. Seventy patients with CND and normal cochlea who underwent CI surgery were retrospectively examined. First, using a data-driven approach, we collected demographic information, radiographic measurements, audiological findings, and audition and speech assessments. Next, CI outcomes were evaluated based on the scores obtained after 2 years of CI from the Categories of Auditory Performance index, Speech Intelligibility Rating, Infant/Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale or Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale, and Meaningful Use of Speech Scale. Then, we measured and averaged the audiological and radiographic characteristics of the patients to form feature vectors, adopting a multivariate feature selection method, called stability selection, to select the features that were consistent within a certain range of model parameters. Stability selection analysis identified two out of six characteristics, namely the vestibulocochlear nerve (VCN) area and the number of nerve bundles, which played an important role in predicting the hearing and speech rehabilitation results of CND patients. Finally, we used a parameter-optimized support vector machine (SVM) as a classifier to study the postoperative hearing and speech rehabilitation of the patients. For hearing rehabilitation, the accuracy rate was 71% for both the SVM classification and the area under the curve (AUC), whereas for speech rehabilitation, the accuracy rate for SVM classification and AUC was 93% and 94%, respectively. Our results identified that a greater number of nerve bundles and a larger VCN area were associated with better CI outcomes. The number of nerve bundles and VCN area can predict CI outcomes in patients with CND. These findings can help surgeons in selecting the side for CI and provide reasonable expectations for the outcomes of CI surgery.

Blended Education: Meaningful Use Of Technology

Blended Education: Meaningful Use Of Technology

Analisis Sentimen Covid-19 Pada Media Sosial Dengan Model Neural Machine Translation

Sentiment analysis, also known as opinion mining. Social media offers users to share their conditions and opinions in their daily lives. Much of the vast amount of textual content is currently available and techniques are needed to make meaningful use of the information by separating and examining it. Sentimental analysis can explore the opinions of social media users from the point of view. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the whole world is giving comments on social media. This study aims to understand the awareness and public perception of the Indonesian people about issues related to Covid-19 on social media. Data mining was carried out on comments from users of social media accounts kawalcovid19, opponentcovid19 id, and the ministry of health with a total of 54,250 comments divided into 32,494 in the first week and 21,756 in the second week. The research method of analyzing the data includes data processing and sentiment exploration analysis. Sentiment distribution results based on the first week were positive 75.68%, neutral 16.3%, negative 13.41% while the second week was positive 80.14%, neutral 9.03%, negative 4.84%. The results are the majority of comments in Indonesian and a mixed language. Sentiment analysis shows the positive reaction of the public to the front line and all the efforts of the health ministry in fighting the pandemic. This study concludes that sentiment analysis has proven to be very effective in producing useful knowledge in the discussion of Covid-19, especially on social media, gathering public perceptions and responses about the government's Covid-19 efforts, and providing a different point of view from the current situation on the ground.

Meaningful use of imaging resources to rule out cerebral venous sinus thrombosis after ChAdOx1 COVID-19 vaccination: Evaluation of the AHA diagnostic algorithm with a clinical cohort and a systematic data review

Vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) with cerebral venous thrombosis (CVST) is an improbable (0.0005%), however potentially lethal complication after ChAdOx1 vaccination. On the other hand, headache is among the most frequent side effects of ChAdOx1 (29.3%). In September 2021, the American Heart Association (AHA) suggested a diagnostic workflow to facilitate risk-adapted use of imaging resources for patients with neurological symptoms after ChAdOx1. We aimed to evaluate the AHA workflow in a retrospective patient cohort presenting at four primary care hospitals in Germany for neurological complaints after ChAdOx1. Scientific literature was screened for case reports of VITT with CVST after ChAdOx1, published until September 1st, 2021. One-hundred-thirteen consecutive patients (77 female, mean age 38.7 +/− 11.9 years) were evaluated at our institutes, including one case of VITT with CVST. Further 228 case reports of VITT with CVST are published in recent literature, which share thrombocytopenia (225/227 reported) and elevated d-dimer levels (100/101 reported). The AHA workflow would have recognized all VITT cases with CVST (100% sensitivity), the number needed to diagnose (NND) was 1:113. Initial evaluation of thrombocytopenia or elevated d-dimer levels would have lowered the NND to 1:68, without cost of sensitivity. Hence, we suggest that in case of normal thrombocyte and d-dimer levels, the access to further diagnostics should be limited by the established clinical considerations regardless of vaccination history.

Associations between Florida counties' COVID-19 case and death rates and meaningful use among Medicaid providers: Cross-sectional ecologic study.

Although the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act has accelerated adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) among Medicaid providers, only half achieved Meaningful Use. Furthermore, Meaningful Use' impact on reporting and/or clinical outcomes remains unknown. To address this deficit, we assessed the difference between Medicaid providers who did and did not achieve Meaningful Use regarding Florida county-level cumulative COVID-19 death, case and case fatality rates (CFR), accounting for county-level demographics, socioeconomic and clinical markers, and healthcare environment. We found that cumulative incidence rates of COVID-19 deaths and CFRs were significantly different between the 5025 Medicaid providers not achieving Meaningful Use and the 3723 achieving Meaningful Use (mean 0.8334/1000 population; SD = 0.3489 vs. mean = 0.8216/1000; SD = 0.3227, respectively) (P = .01). CFRs were .01797 and .01781, respectively, P = .04. County-level characteristics independently associated with increased COVID-19 death rates and CFRs include greater concentrations of persons of African American or Black race, lower median household income, higher unemployment, and higher concentrations of those living in poverty and without health insurance (all P < .001). In accordance with other studies, social determinants of health were independently associated with clinical outcomes. Our findings also suggest that the association between Florida counties' public health outcomes and Meaningful Use achievement may have had less to do with using EHRs for reporting of clinical outcomes and more to do with using EHRs for coordination of care-a key measure of quality. The Florida Medicaid Promoting Interoperability Program which incentivized Medicaid providers towards achieving Meaningful Use, has demonstrated success regarding both rates of adoption and clinical outcomes. Because the Program ends in 2021, we support programs such as HealthyPeople 2030 Health IT which address the remaining half of Florida Medicaid providers who have not yet achieved Meaningful Use.

Distance Learning and Multimedia Teaching Education: E-Laboratory Activities during Covid-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Italian schools and Universities were closed. In this scenario, teachers, in order to continue their work, had to manage the didactics by themselves, carrying out Distance Learning, thanks to the technology support. Nevertheless, teachers had some methodological and technical difficulties. This situation required the replanning of some physics contents, trying to include laboratory activities, too. A teachers’ training was organized in order to support the teachers both for effective and meaningful use of ICT and to carry out some laboratory activities in Distance Learning mode. The training aimed to investigate leading technologies relevant to physics teaching, the competencies that a physics teacher has to acquire to use digital technologies, and the effective approaches to develop these competencies. The course was organized into four webinars, timing 10 hours. Teachers became confident with ICT for communication, sharing, and documentation. Moreover, teachers approached the IBSE methodology, as modified by adding a further E-laboratory phase to the 5E cycle, promoted by Bybee, by planning a learning chunk, including a laboratory activity in synchronous e-learning mode. 20 High School Physics teachers were involved in the training.

0706 Older Age Is a Strong Risk Factor for Supine-position Dependent Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Abstract Introduction Positional obstructive sleep apnea (p-OSA) is commonly defined as a supine-position dependent OSA with the ratio of apnea hypopnea index while supine (s-AHI) to AHI while non-supine (ns-AHI) being greater than 2. Prevalence of p-OSA amongst OSA patients varies from 20 to 75% depending on the study. Previous studies using this definition showed p-OSA being more likely to be in subjects with lower BMI, smaller neck circumference, and milder OSA compared to patients with non-positional OSA (np-OSA). The primary aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of p-OSA using different cutoffs of s-AHI/ ns-AHI ratio and to evaluate the correlation of p-OSA with age, gender, neck circumference (NC), and medical comorbidities of OSA. Methods 846 participants aged 18 year or older who underwent diagnostic polysomnography at an academic sleep disorders center from July 2011 to June 2012 were recruited for this study. Inclusion criteria were total sleep time greater than 120 minutes, diagnosis of OSA, sleep time in supine position more than 10 minutes, and sleep time in non-supine position more than 10 minutes. We tested supine position dependency using the ratio of supine AHI to non-supine AHI (s-AHI/ns-AHI) and classified the subjects into p-OSA and np-OSA based on the ratio of s-AHI/ns-AHI at 2, 3, 5, and 10 respectively to assess the prevalence of p-OSA using each cut-off. For the multivariable logistic analysis of p-OSA and its association with independent variables, s-AHI/ns-AHI of 10 and ns-AHI of being less than 5 was used to define p-OSA. Multivariate analysis was conducted to explore correlation with age, gender, neck circumference, and OSA comorbidities (COPD, hypertension, diabetes). Age of 60 was used to define older age group. Results Of 356 eligible participants, p-OSA was highly prevalent when conventional s-AHI/ns-AHI ration of 2 was used resulting in p-OSA in 274 subjects (prevalence of 77%). The mean value of s-AHI/ns-AHI in this aggregate group of all 356 subjects was 11.7 (much higher than conventional ratio of 2). Thus, using s-AHI/ns-AHI ratio of 10 as the cut-off for supine-position dependency, 114 subjects were classified to have p-OSA. Logarithmic multivariate analysis demonstrated that there was a statistically significant, correlation between age and s-AHI/ns-AHI after adjusting for gender, NC, diabetes, hypertension, and COPD (p-value &amp;lt; 0.05). In the older group, 44.3% of older patient had s-AHI/ns-AHI &amp;gt; 10 compared to 30% of young patients (p-value &amp;lt; 0.05). 41.8% of the older group met criteria for p-OSA compared to 29.2% of younger group (p-value &amp;lt; 0.05). Being of older age was strong risk factor for p-OSA with odds ratio (OR) of 1.76 (confidence interval 1.01 – 3.09; p&amp;lt; 0.05). This effect of age on p-OSA was further modified by gender and diabetes. Older men had significantly higher OR of 3.23 (CI 1.51-6.89) for p-OSA whereas olde women was with OR of 0.79 (CI 0.33-2.42). Older persons with diabetes showed significantly higher OR than non-diabetic older persons (OR of 6.81 [CI 1.7-26.8] vs OR 1.22 [CI 0.65-2.29] respectively). Conclusion Supine-position dependency of obstructive events is much stronger than the conventional ratio of two. Thus, stricter definition is positional OSA is desired for more clinically meaningful use of this subgroup of OSA. Using stricter definition with higher supine-position dependency, an older age is significantly associated with positional OSA, especially in men or in diabetic patients. Support (If Any)

Impact of Health Information Exchange Adoption on Referral Patterns

Efforts to promote Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) on a nationwide scale are beset with major challenges, and one of them is its meaningful use for both physicians and patients. Referrals potentially provide a context for the meaningful use of HIE, and we are yet to understand how HIEs affect referrals. This research studies the impact of HIE on referral patterns. We establish that participation in an HIE network increases the referrals sent to and received from other HIE participants. We investigate this relationship using both econometric and network-analytic methods. Whereas the econometric analysis focuses on the underlying associations between HIE adoption and referral patterns, the network analysis addresses the transformation process by which HIE adoption and referrals coevolve over time. This study has significant implications for healthcare policy making, development of innovative HIE business models, and management of healthcare organizations. This paper was accepted by Anindya Ghose, information systems. Supplemental Material: Data and the online supplement is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4435 .

Clinical decision support system and hospital readmission reduction: Evidence from U.S. panel data

Using a large-scale panel of U.S. hospitals across health referral regions (HRRs), we empirically examine how a hospital's and its neighboring hospitals' adoption of the Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) (and their meaningful use of CDSS) affects the hospital's quality of care. We find that CDSS adoption significantly reduces a hospital's readmission rate of heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, and pneumonia patients. We also reveal the regional spillover effects of adoption, where neighboring hospitals' CDSS adoption in the same HRR also reduces a hospital's readmission rates. Such spillover effects become more significant with electronic data interchange, facilitating seamless and errorless communications among hospitals. We also show that the spillover effects may depend on HRRs' different market structures and hospitals' meaningful-use status. Our findings offer theoretical and managerial insights for both healthcare researchers and practitioners.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Data Collection in Oncology Practice: Findings of an ASCO Survey.

PURPOSE:Lack of collection of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data in oncology practices limits assessment of sexual and gender minority (SGM) cancer patients' experiences and restricts opportunities to improve health outcomes of SGM patients. Despite national calls for routine SOGI data collection, individual-level and institutional barriers hinder progress. This study aimed to identify these barriers in oncology.METHODS:An online survey of ASCO members and others assessed SOGI data collection in oncology practices, institutional characteristics related to SOGI data collection, respondents' attitudes about SOGI data and SGM patients, and respondent demographics. Logistic regression calculated adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs for factors associated with sexual orientation (SO) and gender identity (GI) data collection.RESULTS:Less than half of 257 respondents reported institutional SO and GI data collection (40% and 46%, respectively), whereas over a third reported no institutional data collection (34% and 32%, respectively) and the remainder were unsure (21% and 17%, respectively). Most respondents felt that knowing both SO and GI was important for quality care (77% and 85%, respectively). Collection of SO and GI was significantly associated in separate models with leadership support (ORs = 8.01 and 6.02, respectively), having resources for SOGI data collection (ORs = 10.6 and 18.7, respectively), and respondents' belief that knowing patient SO and GI is important (ORs = 4.28 and 2.76, respectively). Themes from qualitative comments mirrored the key factors identified in our quantitative analysis.CONCLUSION:Three self-reinforcing factors emerged as critical drivers for collecting SOGI data: leadership support, dedicated resources, and individual respondents' attitudes. Policy mandates, implementation science, and clinical reimbursement are strategies to advance meaningful data collection and use in clinical practice.

Use and Perception of Digital Health Technologies by Surgical Patients in Germany in the Pre-COVID-19 Era: Survey Study.

BackgroundThis survey study investigates surgical patients’ use and perception of digital health technologies in Germany in the pre–COVID-19 era.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to relate surgical patients’ characteristics to the use and perception of several digital health technologies.MethodsIn this single-center, cross-sectional survey study in the outpatient department of a university hospital in Germany, 406 patients completed a questionnaire with the following three domains: general information and use of the internet, smartphones, and general digital health aspects. Analyses were stratified by age group and highest education level achieved.ResultsWe found significant age-based differences in most of the evaluated aspects. Younger patients were more open to using new technologies in private and medical settings but had more security concerns. Although searching for information on illnesses on the web was common, the overall acceptance of and trust in web-based consultations were rather low, with <50% of patients in each age group reporting acceptance and trust. More people with academic qualifications than without academic qualifications searched for information on the web before visiting physicians (73/121, 60.3% and 100/240, 41.7%, respectively). Patients with academic degrees were also more engaged in health-related information and communication technology use.ConclusionsThese results support the need for eHealth literacy, health literacy, and available digital devices and internet access to support the active, meaningful use of information and communication technologies in health care. Uncertainties and a lack of knowledge exist, especially regarding telemedicine and the use of medical and health apps. This is especially pronounced among older patients and patients with a low education status.