JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

As the world's population ages and a shortage of health care personnel looms, digital health technologies, such as remote patient monitoring, are proposed as a potential solution.

Objective:

This study seeks to explore the factors that influence physiotherapists' views on digital health technologies, such as remote patient monitoring.

Methods:

9 semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 7 physiotherapists and 2 healthcare leaders. The participants are employed in a large Norwegian municipality and are engaged in a project to implement remote patient monitoring as a service. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using Systematic Text Condensation.

Results:

Two main themes were identified: 1) Organization and external factors, and 2) The physiotherapist and internal factors. The external factors included collaboration, task shifting, and leadership. The internal factors were connected to the physiotherapist's core competencies, attitudes, and professional identity.

Conclusions:

Physiotherapists largely view their competencies in digital health technologies as high, although they are cautious about participating in remote patient monitoring projects and do not clearly see their role. Their views on this type of project are influenced by their workplace organization, interprofessional team collaboration, and relationships with their leader. The physiotherapists highlight the therapeutic alliance with patients as a potential concern amid increased digitalization. On the other hand, they have high expectations for digitalization, linked to training and exercise, to increase patient adherence. Moving forward, the healthcare system should reconsider how to implement task shifting through digital health technologies to involve physiotherapists and achieve more sustainable service delivery.