Dobbelaar, Claudine (2020) The promise and hurdles of eHealth for pulmonary patients: the attitude of primary care professionals AN EXPLORATIVE EVALUATION. thesis, Medicine.
Full text available on request.Abstract
Background: 60-80% of the chronic pulmonary patients are managed in general practices. The prevalence of chronic diseases is expected to raise in the coming years, which will increase the workload in general practices. eHealth might be helpful to improve self-management in pulmonary patients and reduce the workload in general practices. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the experiences and needs of primary care professionals regarding eHealth applications for COPD and asthma patients. Methods: Two focus groups with primary care professionals were performed and an online survey was sent out to quantify the result of the focus groups. Main topics were: experience with eHealth, useful eHealth applications, different aspects of the implementation of eHealth and coaching patients with eHealth. The data of the focus groups were thematically coded using NVivo and the data of the survey were analyzed with SPSS. Results: The results from the two focus groups (N=15, 13% male, mean age 43 [28-59]) showed that applications must be reliable and useful before implemented in primary care and eHealth should not cause unnecessary anxiety in patients. According to the respondents of the survey (N=60, 73% general practitioner, 14% practice nurse, 3% other) time is considered as a barrier for eHealth implementation (77%) and 13% considered anxiety by patients as a barrier. Improved support of the patient (75%), increased knowledge of the disease (77%) and increasing the motivation of the patient (64%) are motivators for the implementation of eHealth. 73% would like to use eHealth in their general practice. Conclusion: This study shows there are opportunities to further expand the use of eHealth in general practices, but there are some factors that should be taken into account. Future studies should investigate how eHealth can save time and how eHealth can be made suitable for all patients. A list of tested and reliable eHealth applications for primary care will be helpful.
| Item Type: | Thesis (UNSPECIFIED) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Metting, E. I. |
| Faculty: | Medical Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Sep 2023 11:39 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Sep 2023 11:39 |
| URI: | https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3678 |
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