JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Digital health is expected to improve efficiency and quality of health. Health information technologies (HIT) imply allocated time, appropriate training and new types of responsibility whose physical and mental impact on healthcare professionals (HCPs) has emerged as an important issue. The present review provides updated data and opinions about such potential impact and discusses the relevance of ongoing programs established to better characterize barriers and facilitators of HIT implementation. The extent of Internet-based healthcare information and digital apps imposes new responsibilities on HCPs in helping patients select reliable sources and incorporate them in the understanding and self-management of the disease. Several reviews also identified exhaustion, depersonalization, workload, over-alerting, poor work-life integration and job unsatisfaction as potential drivers of electronic health report (EHR)-associated clinician burnout and/or HIT unacceptability. Paradoxically, the increasing use of generative artificial intelligence in the decision-making process may in turn introduce an additional layer of complexity due to required specific skills and associated cognitive overload and stress. Regarding EHRs, various approaches like more proportionate use, better adequation of available commercial tools, or multidisciplinary workflows within the clinic and building of new specialty-specific tools are expected to reduce clinician burden. The ongoing E-health Efficiency Evaluation (E3) project has been developed to define the factors and dimensions impacting overall digital environment and to identify relevant ways of optimizing its acceptability by HCPs. The way of preventing and alleviating the adverse effects of digital health is a major challenge that all HIT stakeholders should be aware of.