Physician-Patient Communication and Physicians’ Acceptance of a Tailored Digital Health Information Service: Quantitative Online Survey

TL;DR

This study explores how willing physicians are to use a digital health information service to support patient communication and identifies factors influencing their acceptance.

Contribution

The study introduces a tailored digital health information service and identifies key factors influencing physicians' acceptance of such technology.

Findings

54.1% of physicians were willing to provide a tailored digital health information service.

Perceived usefulness for job performance and patient outcomes was positively associated with physicians' intentions.

Factors like ease of use and social influence were not significantly associated with intentions.

Abstract

Providing tailored information is an essential part of health care. However, physicians often lack time for detailed education during the consultation. An additional, tailored digital health information service (DHIS) could help physicians meet their patients’ information needs regardless of time and place and extend physician-patient communication to the digital realm.

This study aimed to examine physicians’ intentions to provide a DHIS to their patients and identify facilitating factors and barriers, guided by the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology.

A cross-sectional online survey with German physicians from various specialties was conducted in March 2022. The sample (N=364) ranged in age from 33 to 75 years (mean 53.92, SD 8.12), and the majority were male participants (31.9% [n=116] female participants). A blockwise multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to identify facilitating factors and barriers of physicians’ intentions to provide a DHIS.

Overall, 54.1% (n=197) of the surveyed physicians were (rather) willing to provide a tailored DHIS, 23.9% (n=87) were undecided, and 22% (n=80) were (rather) not willing to provide such a service to their patients. The overall model of a blockwise multiple linear regression analysis explained 56.8% of the variance of physicians’ intentions. Perceived usefulness for job performance and patient outcomes as well as personal innovativeness was positively associated with physicians’ intentions to provide a DHIS to their patients. Ease of use, social influence, facilitating conditions, price value, and habit were not associated with their intentions.

The perspective of the majority of surveyed physicians suggests that a tailored DHIS seems to be a promising way to provide additional health information and thus enhance face-to-face physician-patient communication. Efforts supporting the implementation of DHIS should address job performance and patient outcomes in particular. Further, physicians with a more positive attitude could serve as multipliers to increase the adoption of DHIS.

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