Dr. Google: Physicians—The Web—Patients Triangle: Digital Skills and Attitudes towards e-Health Solutions among Physicians in South Eastern Poland—A Cross-Sectional Study in a Pre-COVID-19 Era

Abstract

The investment in digital e-health services is a priority direction in the development of global healthcare systems. While people are increasingly using the Web for health information, it is not entirely clear what physicians’ attitudes are towards digital transformation, as well as the acceptance of new technologies in healthcare. The aim of this cross-sectional survey study was to investigate physicians’ self-digital skills and their opinions on obtaining online health knowledge by patients, as well as the recognition of physicians’ attitudes towards e-health solutions. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to emerge the variables from self-designed questionnaire and cross-sectional analysis, comparing descriptive statistics and correlations for dependent variables using the one-way ANOVA (F-test). A total of 307 physicians participated in the study, reported as using the internet mainly several times a day (66.8%). Most participants (70.4%) were familiar with new technologies and rated their e-health literacy high, although 84.0% reported the need for additional training in this field and reported a need to introduce a larger number of subjects shaping digital skills (75.9%). 53.4% of physicians perceived Internet-sourced information as sometimes reliable and, in general, assessed the effects of its use by their patients negatively (41.7%). Digital skills increased significantly with frequency of internet use (F = 13.167; p = 0.0001) and decreased with physicians’ age and the need for training. Those who claimed that patients often experienced health benefits from online health showed higher digital skills (−1.06). Physicians most often recommended their patients to obtain laboratory test results online (32.2%) and to arrange medical appointments via the Internet (27.0%). Along with the deterioration of physicians’ digital skills, the recommendation of e-health solutions decreased (r = 0.413) and lowered the assessment of e-health solutions for the patient (r = 0.449). Physicians perceive digitization as a sign of the times and frequently use its tools in daily practice. The evaluation of Dr. Google’s phenomenon and online health is directly related to their own e-health literacy skills, but there is still a need for practical training to deal with the digital revolution.

Measuring the Digital Competence of Health Professionals: Scoping Review

“…The competence to process data and information consists of finding [4,23,24,26,37,44,47,52,53,62], evaluating [21,23,25,37,43,47,[50][51][52][53]57,62], creating [23,24,44,49,51], managing [4,23,24,26,29,30,[47][48][49]52,53,57], sharing or communicating [4,23,26,31,44,47,53,57], analyzing [4,26,37,50,53], visualizi...…”

“…Table 2 shows the key data of the included papers. [25] Health care professionals Meta-analysis Australia 2020 Butler-Henderson et al [26] Health science lecturers Quantitative study Spain 2021 Cabero-Almenara et al [27] Students of health professions Quantitative study Australia 2022 Cham et al [28] Optometry students Framework development Australia 2019 Coldwell-Neilson et al [9] Health care professionals Qualitative interview United Kingdom 2014 Evangelinos and Holley [29] Medical students Quantitative study Germany 2022 Faihs et al [30] Health care professionals Quantitative study Switzerland 2021 Golz et al [31] Pharmacists Quantitative study Lebanon 2020 Hallit et al [32] Health care professionals Scoping review United States 2021 Hilty et al [33] Nursing students Quantitative study Denmark 2020 Holt et al [34] Health care professionals Qualitative interview Finland 2022 Jarva et al [35] Health care professionals Questionnaire development Finland 2023 Jarva et al [36] Health care professionals Scoping review Singapore 2020 Jimenez et al [37] Health care professionals Scoping review Chile 2023 Jose et al [38] Nurses Quantitative study Finland 2021 Kaihlanen et al [39] Health care professionals Quantitative study Denmark 2022 Kayser et al [40] Nursing students Quantitative study South Korea 2020 Kim and Jeon [41] Health care professionals Systematic review Finland 2019 Konttila et al [42] Health care professionals Quantitative study Australia 2020 Kuek and Hakkennes [11] Health care professionals Systematic review Italy 2022 Longhini et al […”

“…There was a strong focus on skills in the formulated definitions of digital competence [9,21,22,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]35,36,39,40,42,43 [4,10,11,21,24,27,28,[30][31][32][33]36,42,47,49,54,59]. Other papers (6/46, 13%) added that former experiences with digital topics play a crucial role in forming competence [28,31,40,42,43,46].…”

“…According to Konttila et al [42], experiences are the base for the emergence of attitudes. Other works mentioned motivation (7/46, 15%) [31,35,36,40,42,57,59], practices (2/46, 4%) [9,31], consciousness (2/46, 4%) [9,54], fears (2/46, 4%) [11,43], goals (1/46, 2%) [25], identity (1/46, 2%) [9], self-awareness (1/46, 2%) [28], and strategies (1/46, 2%) [54] as part of competence. These competence dimensions provide a framework for the required competence areas, which are described in the Identified Competence Areas and Competences subsection.…”

“…Multiple subcompetences of technical competences were identified: the ones mentioned most often were basic computer competence, meaning knowledge of different computer components and basic computer concepts [21,32,43]; and skills in using hardware (eg, switching equipment on and off and operating input and output devices) [49,62]. Internet use, consisting of navigating the internet, knowledge of various internet sources, and finding and downloading articles, is part of basic computer competence [24,25,28,37,43,52,62]. The users should be able to use and install software [24,28,32,33,37,49,52,62] and especially be able to use information and communication technology, including understanding the basic concepts and components of information and communication technology and designing, creating, integrating, publishing, and revising content [4,9,22,23,27,[35][36][37][38]41,[43][44][45][47][48][49]53,54,56,57,62].…”