JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Doctors’ interactions with and attitudes towards e-patients have an overall impact on healthcare delivery.

Objective:

To gauge surgeons’ interactions with e-patients, their attitudes towards those e-patient activities, the possible impact on the delivery of healthcare, and reasons behind those activities and attitudes.

Methods:

We created a paper-based and electronic survey form based on pertinent variables identified in the literature, and, in March-July 2018, surveyed 49 surgeons in Germany and 59 surgeons in Oman, asking them about their interactions with and attitudes towards e-patients. Data were captured into Microsoft Excel and SPSS, and descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations and chi-squared tests were performed on the data.

Results:

Of our sample, 71% of the German surgeons and 56% of the Omani surgeons communicated electronically with their patients. Although the German surgeons spent a greater percentage of that time on work-related activities (Χ2(18) = 32.45, P = .019) than the Omani surgeons did, there were many similarities in their activities. An outstanding difference was that the German surgeons used email with their patients more than the Omani surgeons did (Χ2(1) =9.00, P=.003), and the Omani surgeons used social media, specifically WhatsApp, more than the German surgeons did (Χ2(1) =18.58, P < .001). Overall, the surgeons were equally positive about the most common e-patient activities such as bringing material from the Internet to the consultation (both: M = 4.11; SD = 1.6) although the German surgeons (M = 3.43; SD = 1.9) were more concerned (P =.001) than the Omani surgeons (M = 2.32; SD = 1.3) about potential loss of control and time consumption (German: M = 5.10; SD = 1.4; Omani: M = 3.92; SD = 1.6 , P < .001).

Conclusions:

The interactions show a high degree of engagement with e-patients. The differences between the German and the Omani surgeons in preferred methods of communication are possibly closely linked to cultural differences and recent historical events. These differences may, moreover, indicate e-patients’ desired method of electronic communication to include social media. The low impact of surgeons’ attitudes on the activities may also result from a normalisation of many e-patient activities, irrespective of the doctors’ attitudes and influence.