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Exploratory research into current eHealth and eSkills practices of medical specialists

Klont, L. (2016) Exploratory research into current eHealth and eSkills practices of medical specialists.

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Abstract:The population of the Netherlands is ageing which results in a rising number of chronically ill patients. As a result, healthcare expenditures are rising, and the demand for healthcare will continue to increase. With the intention of tackling these obstacles, technology has been implemented in health care, which we currently refer to as eHealth. In spite of its clinical potential, eHealth is not yet meeting its expectations; since eHealth ‘literacy’ of healthcare professionals is often not sufficient to enable implementation of these developments for the benefit of patients. This study aims to identify the healthcare professionals’ current practices of as well as the needs and expectations towards eSkills and eHealth. For this study, interviews (n = 16) and online surveys (n = 166) were conducted among Dutch medical specialists. Accordingly, these inquiries were aimed at mapping their behaviour and attitude towards eHealth thereby connecting to the starting points of the CeHRes roadmap, i.e. contextual inquiry and value specification. This study shows that the majority, 64% of medical specialists indicate that their experience with eHealth is limited, as they do not often need to work with it. Nevertheless, over 95% of the medical specialists believe that eHealth has an added value in healthcare, and only 11% of the specialists are not open towards receiving an education program about eHealth. In particular, they favour increasing their eHealth literacy, for example by learning more about eHealth privacy, security, implementation, and ICT requirements. However, this study also reveals that certain requirements should be met before a widespread implementation of eHealth can be expected. Notably, two examples, (financial) compensation for implementing eHealth applications in clinical practice should be realized, and eHealth needs to be adopted by best practice guidelines and standards.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:TNW: Science and Technology
Subject:81 education, teaching
Programme:Health Sciences MSc (66851)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/71491
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