Exploring the perspectives of health care professionals on digital health technologies in pediatric care and rehabilitation.
Isabelle Roy, Julia Salles, Erika Neveu and 4 others
PMID 39261920WHAT IT FOUND
Clinicians planning to use more digital tools valued their patient benefits but worried they might harm the therapeutic relationship.
Ease of use predicted successful adoption, while lack of training and poor infrastructure predicted failure. Barriers differed by technology type.
Key findings
01Professionals intending to increase use of digital health technologies held more positive attitudes about patient impact and therapeutic achievement, but also more concern about harming the patient-professional relationship and viewing tools as less essential.
02Ease of use and the range of obstacles encountered were significant predictors of usage success, while other attitudes like perceived benefit or essentiality were not.
03Lack of training and inadequate infrastructure were significant predictors of less favorable usage success, whereas technical problems and lack of time were not.
04Current use varied by technology type, with telehealth applications (43.4%) and mobile/tablet learning applications (38.1%) used most frequently, and wearables (4.4%) least.
05Attitudes promoting increased use differed by technology; for example, ease of use was only significant for serious games, while VR/AR and telehealth users were more likely to view tools as non-essential.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Very low response rate (6.8-7.2%) may introduce significant selection bias, potentially over-representing professionals already interested in digital health. Modest sample size (N=108) with small representation from the rehabilitation center (n=33) limits generalizability. Custom-designed survey was not validated, and some non-parametric tests had unequal group sizes, weakening accuracy for specific technologies like serious games and robotic devices. Data is self-reported; usage success was rated by participants on a scale rather than measured objectively. Only seven specific types of digital health technologies were assessed; others like data management tools were excluded.
Declared interests
The study was supported by Non-U.S. Government funding as part of the InteRV Project. No specific commercial conflicts of interest or author disclosures regarding financial ties to technology vendors were reported in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the positive attitudes of clinicians who intend to use these technologies as evidence that the tools improve patient outcomes. This study reports on professional perceptions and adoption barriers, not clinical efficacy. Additionally, the low response rate means these views may not represent the broader workforce.