These Factors Interfere with Physicians’ IT Adoption
A new survey builds on a 2016 AMA survey of 1,300 physicians and aims to deepen the understanding of why doctors do or don’t adopt new digital health solutions. The research finds that physicians have concerns about technology’s efficacy and evidence base. They also are apprehensive about IT's impact on payment, liability and quality of care. Physicians are eager for solutions that give them back more face-to-face time with patients.
“Digital health is the sort of Wild West of medicine and health care right now,” Kate Kirley, MD, a family physician and director of chronic disease prevention at the AMA, said during a presentation at the Connected Health Conference in Boston. “It’s one of the new frontiers that we are all attempting to tame.”
The study found that physicians have four key questions about digital health:
- Does it work?
- Will I get paid?
- Will I get sued?
- Does it work in my practice?
To explore that last question, researchers from Partners HealthCare Center for Connected Health and the AMA decided to conduct a study focused on how the technology will work in a physician’s practice. The “Physician Adoption of Digital Health Technology” study was conducted by researchers at the AMA in collaboration with Partners HealthCare. The collaborative research team was led by principal investigator Kamal Jethwani, MD, MPH, senior director of Connected Health Innovation at Partners HealthCare, and co-investigator Dr. Kirley.
“We wanted to take that deeper dive and start to explore some of the facilitators and barriers of physician adoption of digital health solutions,” she said.
Thousands of papers; little talk about adoption
The study was initially narrowed down to papers and other work published on hypertension management using connected health technologies. When researching this information, the team addressed the barriers and facilitators to implementation and adoption of successful digital health. A series of secondary questions were also included.