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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Haytham Siala
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Electronic and digital health care systems and applications are gathering momentum in the healthcare and portable consumer electronics sectors. An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital real-time version of a patient's paper chart that on request from an authorised user can provide instant and up-to-date accurate information about a patient; however, in light of the recent GDPR regulations, strict security, privacy , and confidentiality laws emerged that restricted the access to patients’ electronic health records to a selected few including the patient and his or her general practitioner or nurse. The EHR database is typically not available for commercial purposes despite the potential long-term and short-term benefits that access to such data could bring to the supply chain. Digital health care systems and applications manifest in different forms such as private and public cloud websites, mobile websites and apps, and wearable technology. Wearables or wearable technologies are smart electronic devices that can be incorporated into clothing or worn as implants or accessories. Smartwatches and activity trackers, which are a popular form of wearables are experiencing an exponential growth in the consumer electronics market. This research study will investigate healthcare consumers’ perception of the digital strategies that are adopted by healthcare providers and as a result, the findings of this study will help healthcare providers gain a better understanding of the enablers and obstacles to the adoption of digital health services. A miscellany of theories including stakeholder theory will be drawn from the literature to underpin the research questions in this study. A mixed method approach will be adopted in this cross-country research study to ascertain the type of digital communications and strategies that are considered by healthcare consumers to be both effectual and non-intrusive. The empirical settings involve a sample of British and Chinese healthcare consumers participating in an interactive experiment where they will be trialling a set of digital healthcare services and communications that they will receive from their healthcare providers through different digital technologies and devices. The interactive scenarios will include pull and push communication strategies such as participants accessing a desktop and mobile website in a private cloud and participants receiving personalised SMS, emails and notifications through mobile apps and wearable technologies. The findings from this research study will have key implications on the future of digital healthcare services in China and the UK but these findings could potentially extrapolate to other countries across the globe. Private and public healthcare providers will benefit from a better understanding of whether healthcare consumers are willing to try and adopt non-traditional healthcare services, where available and consequently, the perception and expectations held by healthcare consumers will help shape and redefine the digital communication strategies of how they prefer to engage at each stage of care. This research study will conclude with a list of practical recommendations that will guide health care providers on how to leverage on and adapt non-traditional digital healthcare services to different circumstances and needs of healthcare consumers and consequently as a by-product, how to reduce pressure and improve the efficiency of healthcare services.
Author(s): Siala H
Publication type: Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)
Publication status: Published
Conference Name: International Conference on Digital Health and Medical Analytics (DHA 2019)
Year of Conference: 2019
Online publication date: 23/08/2019
Acceptance date: 28/07/2019
URL: https://www.dha2019.org/
