Secondary care provider attitudes towards patient generated health data from smartwatches

Abstract

Wearable devices, like smartwatches, are increasingly used for tracking physical activity, community mobility, and monitoring symptoms. Data generated from smartwatches (PGHD_SW) is a form of patient-generated health data, which can benefit providers by supplying frequent temporal information about patients. The goal of this study was to understand providers' perceptions towards PGHD_SW adoption and its integration with electronic medical records. In-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 providers from internal medicine, family medicine, geriatric medicine, nursing, surgery, rehabilitation, and anesthesiology. Diffusion of Innovations was used as a framework to develop questions and guide data analysis. The constant comparative method was utilized to formulate salient themes from the interviews. Four main themes emerged: (1) PGHD_SW is perceived as a relative advantage; (2) data are viewed as compatible with current practices; (3) barriers to overcome to effectively use PGHD_SW; (4) assessments from viewing sample data. Overall, PGHD_SW was valued because it enabled access to information about patients that were traditionally unattainable. It also can initiate discussions between patients and providers. Providers consider PGHD_SW important, but data preferences varied by specialty. The successful adoption of PGHD_SW will depend on tailoring data, frequencies of reports, and visualization preferences to correspond with the demands of providers.npj Digital Medicine (2020) 3:27 ; https://doi.

A Simulated Graphical Interface for Integrating Patient-Generated Health Data From Smartwatches With Electronic Health Records: Usability Study

“…Improvements to the interface should prioritize allowing participants more control over data for better customization as per specific user needs. Results from this usability study support the findings from our qualitative interviews [ 3 ] as well as other studies in which health care professionals trusted health data from smartwatches and believed those would be helpful in clinical decision making [ 19 ]. Previous studies found that health care providers believed that wearable devices could improve health [ 20 ] and recommended health data from smartwatches to be incorporated into the convenient and secure environment of EHR systems [ 3 ].…”

“…Results from this usability study support the findings from our qualitative interviews [ 3 ] as well as other studies in which health care professionals trusted health data from smartwatches and believed those would be helpful in clinical decision making [ 19 ]. Previous studies found that health care providers believed that wearable devices could improve health [ 20 ] and recommended health data from smartwatches to be incorporated into the convenient and secure environment of EHR systems [ 3 ]. Our qualitative study [ 3 ] also found that each medical specialty required different types of data and applied those data to different uses.…”

“…Previous studies found that health care providers believed that wearable devices could improve health [ 20 ] and recommended health data from smartwatches to be incorporated into the convenient and secure environment of EHR systems [ 3 ]. Our qualitative study [ 3 ] also found that each medical specialty required different types of data and applied those data to different uses. This usability test demonstrated that the interface can satisfy a wide range of user needs.…”

“…Previously, a qualitative study was conducted with health care professionals about their perceptions and visual display preferences toward patient-generated data from smartwatches [ 3 ]. Based on the findings, a graphical EHR interface was developed to view measurements of attributes, such as pain, falls, hydration, and mobility patterns—the factors ranked high by health care providers in our previous study [ 3 ]. As part of the qualitative study, participants were aware that they would be recontacted to participate in the second phase.…”

“…Specifically, devices can be used to track physical activity, symptoms (eg, pain), and community mobility [ 1 , 2 ]. Health care professionals realize the value of receiving such data and have expressed the desire for those to be incorporated into electronic health record (EHR) systems [ 3 ]. However, simply adding data from wearable technology into EHRs can be problematic.…”