JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Remote measurement technologies (RMTs) can be used to collect data on a variety of bio-behavioural variables, which may benefit the care of people with central nervous system disorders. While various studies have explored their potential, prior work has highlighted a knowledge gap concerning healthcare professional’s perception of the value of RMTs in clinical practice.

Objective:

To understand the perspectives of healthcare professionals on the implementation of RMT in healthcare practice for the care of people with depression, epilepsy or multiple sclerosis.

Methods:

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 multidisciplinary primary and secondary care healthcare professionals managing people with epilepsy, depression or multiple sclerosis. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis.

Results:

Eight main themes emerged from the analysis. Healthcare professionals considered RMT data to be informative for the care of patients and empowering to patients in all three conditions. However, professionals indicated decisions about care should not be made exclusively on the basis of RMT data. Implementing RMTs may require new staff roles to manage incoming data if RMTs are used to alert services to signs of relapse. Results also indicate points in care pathways at which healthcare staff would most benefit from RMT data, and demonstrate that healthcare professionals are pragmatic about data security risks arising from using patients’ RMT data.

Conclusions:

RMTs could add value to the system of care for individual patients with central nervous system disorders through providing clinicians with graphic summaries of data in the patient record. Barriers of both technical and human nature should be considered when implementing these technologies, as should the limits to the benefits they can offer.