Health professionals’ attitudes to patients’ use of wearable technology

Abstract

Objective Wearable technologies for health monitoring are becoming increasingly mainstream. However, there is currently limited evidence exploring use from the perspective of healthcare professionals. This study aimed to explore health professionals’ attitudes toward their patients’ use of wearable technologies. Methods A convenience sample of health professionals was recruited to participate in this study. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were carried out either face-to-face, via Skype or telephone. Interviews were recorded using a Dictaphone, transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. Results Four themes emerged from the qualitative findings: ‘opportunities for wearable technology’, ‘usability and understanding’, ‘privacy and surveillance’ and ‘cost’. Conclusions The findings portray health professionals’ ambivalence to the use of wearable technology, and it was apparent that whilst the participants considered the technology as being beneficial to patients, they still had concerns for its use.

General Practitioners' Perceptions of the Use of Wearable Electronic Health Monitoring Devices: Qualitative Analysis of Risks and Benefits

“…Indeed, GPs anticipated longer consultations that would be dedicated to data analysis and data interpretation stemming from patients’ wearables. From this perspective, our results confirm those of recent studies showing that wearables are considered to be particularly useful for information-transmission and general illness management but that time-consuming data interpretation continue to be important concerns among health professionals [ 19 , 34 , 48 ]. With respect to digital information, GPs also expressed their concern regarding product reliability and patients’ data protection.…”

“…Participants perceived wearables as user-friendly devices that could foster patients’ empowerment and support them throughout behavior change processes [ 33 , 34 ]. However, the use of wearables for patient education and empowerment has also been associated with a patronizing view of the doctor–patient relationship [ 6 ].…”

“…Another body of literature on GPs’ perspectives has examined their experience with a wide array of eHealth innovations, beyond the specific use of wearables [ 32 ]. With respect to wearables, few studies have explored GPs’ attitudes with a set of predefined topics using individual semistructured interviews [ 33 , 34 ] and web-based surveys [ 19 ]. We further investigated GPs’ perspectives and contribute to the existing literature on the role of wearables in family medicine.…”

Data from Digital Health Devices Informs Ideal Cardiovascular Health

“…For example, in MyHeartCounts, of the 48,968 participants who provided informed consent, only 9.3% of individuals completed the 7 days of activity monitoring in the study [ 18 ]. Third, participants’ attitudes toward the use of digital health devices may be another factor for consideration, as individuals tend to express concern with respect to privacy and surveillance, cost, and usability and understanding [ 38 ].…”

“Sometimes I don’t have a pulse … and I’m still alive!” Interviews with healthcare professionals to explore their experiences of and views on population-based digital health technologies

“…Recent qualitative work has further attempted to shed some light on the current phenomenon exploring healthcare professionals’ attitudes towards the adoption of digital/wearable technologies by the public for health care/tracking. 14 The study findings show a significant level of scepticism among HCPs about the use of DHTs, though the focus of the study revolved almost exclusively around attitudes and perceptions, rather than experiences. Indeed, much less is known about what HCPs find the main disadvantages, barriers and related solutions, to be towards constructive implementation of DHTs in healthcare.…”