Process Evaluation of an eHealth Intervention Implemented into General Practice: General Practitioners’ and Patients’ Views

Abstract

(1) Background: It has been shown that online interventions can be enhanced by providing additional support; accordingly, we developed an implementation plan for the use of an eHealth intervention targeting physical activity and healthy nutrition in collaboration with general practitioners (GPs). In this study, GPs and patients evaluated the actual implementation; (2) Methods: Two hundred and thirty two patients completed the feasibility questionnaire regarding the implementation of “MyPlan 1.0” in general practice. Individual interviews were conducted with 15 GPs who implemented “MyPlan 1.0” into their daily work flow; (3) Results: The majority of the patients indicated that general practice was an appropriate setting to implement the online intervention. However, patients were not personally addressed by GPs and advice/action plans were not discussed with the GPs. The GPs indicated that this problem was caused by the severe time restrictions in general practice. GPs also seemed to select those patients who they believed to be able to use (e.g., highly educated patients) and to benefit from the intervention (e.g., patients with overweight); (4) Conclusions: Although GPs were involved in the development of the online intervention and its implementation plan, the programme was not used in general practice as intended.

Usability and utility of eHealth for physical activity counselling in primary health care: a scoping review

“…Of 30 articles, four articles were rated 100% of the items (5/5 items) related to methodological quality [ 28 – 31 ]. Four mixed methods studies were rated ranging from 66% (10/15 items) to over 80% (13/15 items) [ 18 , 32 – 34 ]. The rest of the articles were rated 60% (3/5 items, n = 10) [ 20 , 35 – 43 ] or 80% (4/5 items, n = 12) [ 21 , 44 – 54 ].…”

“…Of 17 articles published from 2014 to 2019, more than half ( n = 10) obviously presented the use of mobile technologies (e.g. smartphone, tablet) [ 21 , 28 , 30 , 31 , 34 , 39 , 40 , 42 , 51 , 52 ], while some programmes were potential to access by mobile devices (Table 2 and Additional file 2 ) [ 20 , 32 ].…”

“…The Spanish team introduced a randomised controlled trial to investigate the short- and long-term effects on utilisation of a mobile phone app [ 40 , 42 ]. The online programme, MyPlan 1.0, developed in Belgium was presented in two articles (Table 2 and Additional file 2 ) [ 20 , 32 ].…”

“…Four articles (50.00%) reported controversial outcomes (e.g. easiness vs technical issues) [ 30 , 32 , 39 , 47 ]. Two articles (25.00%) stated ineffective usability among PHC providers due to inexperienced staff, complications of the programme, and technical problems [ 33 , 36 ].…”

Development of an Ehealth and GP Assisted Programme for Persistent Physical Symptoms: Qualitative Exploration of Users’ Needs

“…personal goal setting and coping strategies). In doing so, eHealth may assume some of the tasks of GPs prompting them to address selfmanagement in the consultation (20). Online self-help interventions designed to be conducted independently of specialised healthcare might be a new way of overcoming the challenges and form a valuable addition to current treatment options for patients with PPS in general practice (21).…”