Physicians’ perceptions of mobile technology for enhancing asthma care for youth

Abstract

This study assessed physicians' receptivity to using mobile technology as a strategy in patient care for adolescents with asthma. Understanding physicians' perceived barriers and benefits of integrating mobile technology in adolescents' asthma care and self-management is an initial step in enhancing overall patient and disease outcomes. We conducted in-depth interviews with second- and third-year pediatric residents and attending physicians who oversee pediatric residents in training (N = 27) at an academic medical center in the southeastern United States. We identified both benefits from and barriers to broader use of mobile technologies for improving asthma outcomes in adolescents. Resident physicians demonstrated greater readiness for integrating these technologies than did attending physicians. Prior to adoption of mobile technologies in the care of adolescent asthma patients, barriers to implementation should be understood. Prior to widespread adoption, such systems will need to be evaluated against traditional care for demonstration of patient outcomes that improve on the current situation.

Health Care Provider Perceptions of Consumer-Grade Devices and Apps for Tracking Health: A Pilot Study (Preprint)

“…Prior work has demonstrated that patient access to these technologies is a barrier to providers in recommending them to patients [25][26][27][28], and our results support these findings. Our research demonstrated provider perceived barriers to recommending these technologies included older patients, technical literacy, and financial costs.…”

“…However, Nundy et al found that overall this data is more trustworthy than self-report, which providers perceive that some patients misrepresent their activity to please the providers [26]. In previous research regarding health technologies, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) rules and regulations regarding data security have been major concerns among providers [25,27,28]. However, we found the majority of providers were not concerned with these issues.…”

“…Physicians tended to be concerned over costs and perceived productivity [26,27,29], whereas nurses were concerned with how much effort went into learning the technologies and the support available for integrating and use in practice [29]. Previous studies have found differences between physicians and APRNs [37].…”

“…), the evidence suggests that tracking may be beneficial [19][20][21][22][23], however, use in the clinical setting remains limited. Research on primary care providers' perceptions of information technologies that have been developed to be used as a diary for a specific illness, is also limited, with only a handful of studies identified [24][25][26][27][28].…”

Engaging Teens with Asthma in Designing a Patient-Centered Mobile App to Aid Disease Self-Management

“…Previous studies reveal that pediatric asthma patients, their parents, and their pulmonologists desire mobile, user-friendly solutions, such as an app, that tracks their asthma experience, alerts them when their conditions worsen, and strengthens communication among families and their healthcare providers. [21][22][23] The main objective of this study was to engage teen asthma patients in the developmental stages of product design for an asthma self-management app for persons in their age group. We assessed teens' overall impressions of currently available asthma apps.…”