Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Human Factors
Date Submitted: Apr 1, 2024
Date Accepted: Sep 13, 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Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
Factors impacting the adoption and potential reimbursement of a virtual reality tool for pain management in Switzerland: qualitative case study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Pain and its adequate treatment are an issue in hospitals and emergency departments (ED). A virtual reality (VR) tool to manage pain could act as a valuable complement to common pharmaceutical analgesics. While efficacy could be shown in previous studies, this does not assure clinical adoption in emergency departments.
Objective:
The main aim of the study was to investigate which factors affect the adoption and potential reimbursement of a VR tool for pain management in the ED of a Swiss University Hospital.
Methods:
Key informant interviews were conducted using in-depth semi structured interviews with 11 participants reflecting the perspectives of all the relevant stakeholder groups including physicians, nurses, patients, health technology providers, and health insurance and reimbursement experts. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, and the extracted data were systematically analyzed using a thematic analysis and narrative synthesis of emergent themes. A consolidated framework for eHealth adoption was used to enable a systematic investigation of the topic and help determine which adoption factors are considered facilitators or barriers or not particularly relevant for the tool subject of the study.
Results:
According to the participants, the three key facilitators are: 1- organizational environment, 2- tension for change, ease of use and demonstrability, 3- employee engagement. And the three key barriers to adoption are: 1- workload, 2- changes in clinical workflow and habit, 3- reimbursement.
Conclusions:
The study concludes that the adoption of a VR tool for pain management in the ED of the hospital subject of the study, although benefiting from a high tension for change in pain and workload management, is highly dependent on the respective organizational environment, engagement of the clinical staff and reimbursement considerations. While tailored incentive structures and ambassador roles could benefit initial adoption, a change in the reimbursement landscape and further investigation on the positive effects on workflow effectiveness are required to drive long-term adoption. Clinical Trial: NA
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.