Digital tools must create value for patients and health professionals
Our first open day webinar was held on 2 June. The topic was Adoption of technology in health.
This event series is hosted by our centre in collaboration with the Polish Ministry of Health. It is part of the Norway Grants-funded project «Tackling social inequalities in health with the use of e-health and telemedicine solutions.»
Centre Director Stein Olav Skrøvseth at the Norwegian Centre for E-health Research said in his welcoming statement that it is important to share research and knowledge internationally, for healthcare actors to be able to make good decisions in the future.
Hubert Życiński, Deputy Director, Department of Innovation, Polish Ministry of Health also underlined the importance of collaboration across borders. He said that Poland is working on development within areas of remote care, expansion of electronic health records, employment of AI and more. E-health can improve healthcare access and quality of care, and assist in a shift towards a pre-emptive and participatory health system.
The researchers Gro-Hilde Severinsen and Line Silsand presented a study on the implementation of a mobile app to support clinical practice at a hospital. The nurses found the change from paper registration to an app helpful. Important factors for success of lightweight IT was a mature organisation and extensive collaboration between actors.
PhD fellow Gunn Hilde Rotvold talked about the introduction of health and welfare technology (telecare) in Norwegian municipalities. A national telehealth program was launched a decade ago, to assist municipalities in implementing e-health solutions. Uptake of new technologies has been slow and more research is needed to understand how to succeed.
E-health researcher Kari Dyb explained how the analytical framework «NASSS» kan be used to predict and evaluate the implementation of e-health. If scale-up and sustained adoption is the goal, one needs to look at many factors, such as: The condition/illness, technology, value proposition, the adopters (staff, patient, carers), organisation, the wider system (political, regulatory, socio-cultural etc.) and embedding and adaption over time.
PhD fellow Kristian Malm-Nicolaisen held a presentation named «The hows, whys and whens of e-health evaluation.» He has looked at many electronic health record mega projects and observed different factors that caused them to fail. Evaluation is important and should be used to prepare, inform and adjust. A strong cultural fit must be established between the organisation and IT.
The recorded presentations can be viewed here. (YouTube playlist: Open Days)
The second Open Day webinar will take place in the fall of 2022 and the topic is mental health.