ArticleBMJ open2024
Barriers and facilitators to use of digital health tools by healthcare practitioners and their patients, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a multimethods study.
Article in BMJ open, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Predicting Work Disability Related to Spinal Pain: A Systematic Review of the Most Clinically Relevant Tools.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2026Pooled it
- Determinants of digital health literacy among health professionals: Evidence from public and private hospitals in Eastern Ethiopia.PloS one · 2026Article
- "A tool to support, not replace": patient and general practitioner perceptions of digital decision support tools for back pain.Family practice · 2025Article
- Preference for Face-to-Face Contraceptive Service Delivery Post-COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study.BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 2025Article
- Opportunities and Challenges for an Organizational Digital Public Health Strategy in a Provincial Public Health Program in Canada: Qualitative Description of Practitioner Perspectives.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2025Article
- Instruments to assess the digital health competencies of healthcare professionals: a scoping review.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Knee4Life: Empowering Knee Recovery After Total Knee Replacement Through Digital Health Protocol.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Article
- From palm to practice: prescription digital therapeutics for mental and brain health at the National Institutes of Health.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Harnessing digital health technologies and real-world evidence to enhance clinical research and patient outcomes.Digital healthReview
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 7 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo explore how healthcare practitioners (HCPs) made decisions about the implementation of digital health technologies (DHTs) in their clinical practice before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
designA multimethods study, comprising semistructured interviews conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, supplemented with an online survey that was conducted during the pandemic with a different sample, to ensure the qualitative findings remained relevant within the rapidly changing healthcare context. Participants were recruited through HCP networks, snowballing and social media. Data were analysed thematically.
settingPhone interviews and online survey.
participantsHCPs represented a range of professions from primary and secondary care across England, with varied socioeconomic deprivation.
results24 HCPs were interviewed, and 16 HCPs responded to the survey. In the interviews, HCPs described three levels where decisions were made, which determined who would have access to what DHTs: health organisation, HCP and patient levels. These decisions resulted in the unequal implementation of DHTs across health services, created barriers for HCPs using DHTs in their practice and influenced HCPs' decisions on which patients to supply DHTs with. In the survey, HCPs described being provided support to overcome some of the barriers at the organisation and HCP level during the pandemic. However, they cited similar concerns to pre-pandemic about barriers patients faced using DHTs (eg, digital literacy). In the absence of centralised guidance on how to manage these barriers, health services made their own decisions about how to adapt their services for those who struggled with DHTs.
conclusionsDecision-making at the health organisation, HCP and patient levels influences inequalities in access to DHTs for HCPs and patients. The mobilisation of centralised information and resources during the pandemic can be viewed as good practice for reducing barriers to use of DHTs for HCPs. However, attention must also be paid to reducing barriers to accessing DHTs for patients.
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