Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Human Factors
Date Submitted: Dec 28, 2022
Date Accepted: Feb 26, 2023
Date Submitted to PubMed: Feb 27, 2023
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Assessing the Quality and Impact of eHealth Tools: Systematic Literature Review and Narrative Synthesis
ABSTRACT
Background:
Technological advancements have opened the path to many technology providers to easily develop and introduce eHealth tools to the public. The use of these tools is increasingly recognized as a critical quality driver in healthcare, however, choosing a quality tool in the myriad of tools available for a specific health need doesn’t come without challenges.
Objective:
The aim of this review was to systematically investigate the literature to understand the different approaches and criteria used to assess the quality and impact of eHealth tools by considering sociotechnical factors (from technical, social, and organizational perspectives).
Methods:
A structured search was completed following the participants, intervention, comparators, and outcomes framework. We searched the PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science, Scopus, and ProQuest databases for studies published between January 2012 and January 2022 in the English language, yielding 675 results, of which 40 studies met the inclusion criteria. The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines and the Cochrane Handbook were followed to ensure a systematic process. Extracted data were analyzed using NVivo (QSR International), with a thematic analysis, and narrative synthesis of emergent themes.
Results:
Similar measures from the different papers, frameworks, and initiatives were aggregated in 36 unique criteria grouped in 13 clusters. Using the sociotechnical approach, we classified the relevant criteria into technical, social, and organizational criteria. The technical assessment criteria were grouped in 5 clusters: technical aspects, functionality, content, data management, and design. The social assessment criteria were grouped in 4 clusters: human centricity, health outcomes, visible popularity metrics, and social aspects. And the organizational assessment criteria were grouped in 4 clusters: sustainability and scalability, health care organization, health care context, and developer.
Conclusions:
This review builds on the growing body of research that investigates criteria used to assess the quality and impact of eHealth tools and highlights the complexity and challenges facing these initiatives. It demonstrates that there is no single framework that is used uniformly to assess the quality and impact of eHealth tools, and highlights the need for more a comprehensive approach that balances the social, organizational, and technical assessment criteria in a way that reflects the complexity and interdependence of the healthcare ecosystem, and is aligned with the factors impacting users’ adoption to ensure uptake and stickiness on the long term. Clinical Trial: NA
Citation
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Copyright
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