Adoption of e-health technology by physicians: a scoping review

Abstract

ObjectiveThe goal of this scoping review was to summarize the current literature identifying barriers and opportunities that facilitate adoption of e-health technology by physicians.DesignScoping review.SettingMEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO databases as provided by Ovid were searched from their inception to July 2015. Studies captured by the search strategy were screened by two reviewers and included if the focus was on barriers and facilitators of e-health technology adoption by physicians.ResultsFull-text screening yielded 74 studies to be included in the scoping review. Within those studies, eleven themes were identified, including cost and liability issues, unwillingness to use e-health technology, and training and support.ConclusionCost and liability issues, unwillingness to use e-health technology, and training and support were the most frequently mentioned barriers and facilitators to the adoption of e-health technology. Government-level payment incentives and privacy laws to protect health information may be the key to overcome cost and liability issues. The adoption of e-health technology may be facilitated by tailoring to the individual physician’s knowledge of the e-health technology and the use of follow-up sessions for physicians and on-site experts to support their use of the e-health technology. To ensure the effective uptake of e-health technologies, physician perspectives need to be considered in creating an environment that enables the adoption of e-health strategies.

eHealth in integrated care programs for people with multimorbidity in Europe: Insights from the ICARE4EU project

“…Other important issues highlighted in previous studies are the lack of electronic skills among patients and providers, which perhaps also nurtures (cultural) resistance in using eHealth tools [49,50]. This seems unfortunate as a positive attitude and perception among physicians could play an important role in making home telehealth services more acceptable for the elderly population [51].…”

Telemedicine in specialised palliative care: Healthcare professionals' and their perspectives on video consultations—A qualitative study

“…Despite this, worldwide studies have been completed and have described the use of telemedicine in palliative care (Collier et al, ; Hoek, Schers, Bronkhorst, Vissers, & Hasselaar, ; van Gurp, van Selm, van Leeuwen, Vissers, & Hasselaar, ; van Gurp, van Selm, Vissers, van Leeuwen, & Hasselaar, ). According to de Grood et al, to ensure the effective uptake of e‐Health technologies, physicians perspectives' need to be considered when creating an environment that enables the adoption of e‐Health in health care (de Grood, Raissi, Kwon, & Santana, ). Cost and liability issues, and an un‐willingness to use e‐Health technology were the most mentioned barriers.…”

“…Cost and liability issues, and an un‐willingness to use e‐Health technology were the most mentioned barriers. Furthermore, training and support were seen to facilitate the adoption of e‐Health technology among healthcare professionals (de Grood et al, ). Similar to this, Kruse et al, found, in their systematic review which included ( n = 30) articles, that barriers to adoption of telemedicine worldwide, were technically challenged staff and a resistance to change among the healthcare professionals (Scott Kruse et al, ).…”

Expert Consensus Survey on Digital Health Tools for Patients With Serious Mental Illness: Optimizing for User Characteristics and User Support (Preprint)

“…Although DHTs hold significant promise for the improvement of various elements of behavioral health intervention, and surveys have indicated that people with SMI are enthusiastic about using technology [19,20], adoption has been slow, testing of outcomes from acceptability to effectiveness has been limited, and codified development and deployment strategies have been lacking [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. These preliminary efforts need to be undertaken before their effectiveness can be tested and verified so that the resulting findings can be incorporated into the redesign and reconfiguration of DHTs to provide an optimal solution.…”