Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Human Factors
Date Submitted: Oct 7, 2022
Open Peer Review Period: Oct 7, 2022 - Dec 2, 2022
Date Accepted: Feb 26, 2023
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Experiences of using an electronic health tool among healthcare professionals involved in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease management: a qualitative analysis
ABSTRACT
Background:
Although electronic health (eHealth) tools are seen as a promising way of delivering health services in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) management, knowledge is scarce on the experience of using eHealth tools from the perspective of the healthcare professionals involved in COPD management in daily clinical praxis.
Objective:
The study explored the experiences of using an eHealth tool among healthcare professionals that worked with patients with COPD in daily clinical practice.
Methods:
Semi-structured interviews were performed with ten healthcare professionals three and twelve months after accessing the COPD Web, an eHealth tool. Data from the interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach.
Results:
The main results reflected healthcare professionals’ experiences in three categories: receiving competence support and adjusting practice, improving quality of care, and efforts required for implementation. These categories highlight that using an eHealth tool such as the COPD Web was experienced to provide knowledge support for healthcare professionals, leading to adaptation and facilitation of working procedures and person-centered care, and, taken together, improving quality of care through enhanced patient contact and encouragement of interprofessional collaboration. In addition, healthcare professionals expressed that patients using the COPD Web were better equipped to tackle their disease and adhered better to provided treatment, increasing their self-management ability. However, structural and external barriers bar the successful implementation of an eHealth tool in daily praxis. Time, support, and education are needed to tackle these barriers.
Conclusions:
The results of this study indicate that the use of an eHealth tool among healthcare professionals involved in COPD management improves quality of care and enables competence support and clinical practice adjustment, but efforts are required before an eHealth tool can be successfully implemented. Clinical Trial: NCT02696187
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