Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Nov 20, 2023
Date Accepted: Oct 29, 2024
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
A digital informal care support platform: Lessons learned for continued implementation and pre-post Covid-19 comparison of support functionality use
ABSTRACT
Background:
With the growing need for support for informal caregivers and care recipients during COVID-19, the uptake of digital care collaboration platforms such as Caren (NL) increased. However, insights on the impact of COVID-19 on the use and implementation of these kinds of platforms are still lacking.
Objective:
This study aimed to 1) identify technology developers’ lessons learned about the continued implementation of Caren during COVID-19 and 2) perform a pre-post COVID-19 comparison of Caren’s support functionality use.
Methods:
A focus group with platform developers (N=3) was conducted to extract implementation lessons learned. Focus group data were first analyzed deductively, using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research domains (i.e. individual characteristics, intervention characteristics, inner, and outer setting). Later, an inductive analysis of overarching themes was performed. Additionally, survey data were collected in 2019 (N= 11635) and 2022 (N= 5573) among platform users for comparing support functionality usage by using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results:
Several recommendations for continued implementation of Caren were identified, for example: finding innovative solutions to engage the target audience, considering automated user support, taking into account the fluctuation of user groups, and addressing concerns about data transparency in healthcare. The number of informal caregivers and care recipients who used the platform several times per day increased significantly between 2019 and 2022, as well as the use of certain support functionalities such as a digital agenda to make and view appointments, a messaging function to receive updates and communicate with (in)formal caregivers, and digital notes to store important information.
Conclusions:
The present work offers qualitative and quantitative insights into the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the usage and implementation of a digital informal care collaboration platform. Our findings hold implications for improving the design and implementation ofsuch platforms, towards the “new digital normal”.
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