from Medical News Today:
What will motivate the elderly, the chronically ill and the medically underserved to use interactive information technology systems to actively help manage their own health problems? What barriers have prevented people in these groups from using such systems more widely than they have?
The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) Oregon Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) at Oregon Health & Science University searched the scientific literature for answers. The EPC's report is the first to identify and catalog the factors that influence the use of home computer-based health IT systems by the most at-risk subgroups of the population and to review the evidence on health outcomes attributable to the use of these technologies. "This report will help us make health information technology more available and accessible to consumers as they use it to become more active in their care," said AHRQ Director Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D. "I hope the report will be useful to clinicians, policymakers, patient advocates and others who are working to integrate health IT solutions that improve the quality and safety of health care for all Americans."
Among the study's findings:
- The most effective systems are those that provide routine and timely tailored clinical feedback and advice. Patients prefer systems that provide them with information that is specifically tailored for them and is not general in nature.
- Patients prefer systems that send them information on devices that fit into their normal daily routine, such as cell phones.
- The lack of a perceived benefit is the primary barrier to wider use by patients of interactive IT technologies. When patients did not perceive a potential health benefit or did not trust the advice they were given they were less likely to use the technology.
- Issues of access, ease of use, and convenience of technology systems were also found to be key barriers to wider use.
- The most frequently used health IT functions are online peer group support bulletin boards and disease self-management tools.
- Patients value the anonymity and nonjudgmental nature of interacting with a computer system, especially those with HIV/AIDS or mental disorders.
What will motivate the elderly, the chronically ill and the medically underserved to use interactive information technology systems to actively help manage their own health problems? What barriers have prevented people in these groups from using such systems more widely than they have?
The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) Oregon Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) at Oregon Health & Science University searched the scientific literature for answers. The EPC's report is the first to identify and catalog the factors that influence the use of home computer-based health IT systems by the most at-risk subgroups of the population and to review the evidence on health outcomes attributable to the use of these technologies. "This report will help us make health information technology more available and accessible to consumers as they use it to become more active in their care," said AHRQ Director Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D. "I hope the report will be useful to clinicians, policymakers, patient advocates and others who are working to integrate health IT solutions that improve the quality and safety of health care for all Americans."
Among the study's findings:
- The most effective systems are those that provide routine and timely tailored clinical feedback and advice. Patients prefer systems that provide them with information that is specifically tailored for them and is not general in nature.
- Patients prefer systems that send them information on devices that fit into their normal daily routine, such as cell phones.
- The lack of a perceived benefit is the primary barrier to wider use by patients of interactive IT technologies. When patients did not perceive a potential health benefit or did not trust the advice they were given they were less likely to use the technology.
- Issues of access, ease of use, and convenience of technology systems were also found to be key barriers to wider use.
- The most frequently used health IT functions are online peer group support bulletin boards and disease self-management tools.
- Patients value the anonymity and nonjudgmental nature of interacting with a computer system, especially those with HIV/AIDS or mental disorders.
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