How Geographical Isolation and Aging in Place Can Be Accommodated Through Connected Health Stakeholder Management: Qualitative Study With Focus Groups

Abstract

Background In remote areas, connected health (CH) is needed, but as local resources are often scarce and the purchasing power of residents is usually poor, it is a challenge to apply CH in these settings. In this study, CH is defended as a technological solution for reshaping the direction of health care to be more proactive, preventive, and precisely targeted—and thus, more effective. Objective The objective of this study was to explore the identity of CH stakeholders in remote areas of Taiwan and their interests and power in order to determine ideal strategies for applying CH. We aimed to explore the respective unknowns and discover insights for those facing similar issues. Methods Qualitative research was conducted to investigate and interpret the phenomena of the aging population in a remote setting. An exploratory approach was employed involving semistructured interviews with 22 participants from 8 remote allied case studies. The interviews explored perspectives on stakeholder arrangements, including the power and interests of stakeholders and the needs of all the parties in the ecosystem. Results Results were obtained from in-depth interviews and focus groups that included identifying the stakeholders of remote health and determining how they influence its practice, as well as how associated agreements bring competitive advantages. Stakeholders included people in government sectors, industrial players, academic researchers, end users, and their associates who described their perspectives on their power and interests in remote health service delivery. Specific facilitators of and barriers to effective delivery were identified. A number of themes, such as government interests and power of decision making, were corroborated across rural and remote services. These themes were broadly grouped into the disclosure of conflicts of interest, asymmetry in decision making, and data development for risk assessment. Conclusions This study contributes to current knowledge by exploring the features of CH in remote areas and investigating its implementation from the perspectives of stakeholder management. It offers insights into managing remote health through a CH platform, which can be used for preliminary quantitative research. Consequently, these findings could help to more effectively facilitate diverse stakeholder engagement for health information sharing and social interaction.

Fear appeal, coping appeal and mobile health technology persuasion: a two-stage scenario-based survey of the elderly

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“…And the mobility and flexibility of MHS have greatly improved the accessibility of medical services and overcome the shortcomings caused by the scarcity of medical resources (Kim et al, 2017;Chen, 2018). For example, due to the flexibility of time and space, Chen et al (2020) found that the use of e-health can achieve seamless patient care and clinical benefits by investigating the implementation of e-health from the perspectives of stakeholder management in remote locations. Although mobile medical services have a variety of advantages, their development also faces lots of challenges because of their innovativeness as a new application, especially for the elderly users (Zhang et al, 2017;Zhao et al, 2018;Waqas et al, 2021).…”

Moving Food Assistance into the Digital Age: A Scoping Review

“…Both of these frameworks include the enduser (e.g., food pantry clients) within the intervention development process, ensuring that the tools meet the needs of intended users [88]. In addition, stakeholder management and analysis frameworks provide valuable protocols for improving acceptability and usability [3,4]. Despite these frameworks, only 12 studies were performed in partnership with or led by food assistance programs.…”

“…Mobile Health (mHealth) and digital application technology have revolutionized public health [1][2][3][4]. Digital interventions have been shown to successfully improve health behaviors, ranging from smoking cessation to diet [5,6] and health outcomes, including weight loss [7][8][9][10].…”

Integration of stakeholder engagement from development to dissemination in genomic medicine research: Approaches and outcomes from the CSER Consortium

“…Targeted/one-on-one feedback Targeted/one-on-one feedback seeks out individuals with specific knowledge, experience, or insights about a research topic, 28 who may be geographically distant or have other barriers to regular participation in groups. 29,30 As such, it may be particularly useful to engage traditionally underrepresented populations.…”