Digital health and cardiovascular healthcare professionals in Portugal: current status, expectations and barriers to implementation

• Autor(a) principal: Carlota Costa do Amaral Osorio de Queiroz
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://hdl.handle.net/10216/150558
• topic: Ciências médicas e da saúde; Medical and Health sciences

Introduction and objectives: Digital health (DH) is a broad concept, bringing together technology and healthcare, that is playing an increasingly important role in the daily routine of healthcare professionals and promising to contribute to the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. There is no solid data evaluating the position of Portuguese healthcare professionals (HCP) towards the implementation of DH in cardiovascular medicine. Therefore, this national cross-sectional study aims to provide a snapshot of DH's implementation in the Portuguese cardiovascular HCP routine and identify both expectations and barriers to its adoption. Methods: An 18-question survey was created for the specific needs of this study and distributed to 1174 potential receivers of the Portuguese Society of Cardiology mailing list. Results: We collected 117 valid responses (survey response rate of 10%). Almost all participants had smartphones and laptops, and two-thirds had tablets. Electronic medical information systems were the most used DH tool (84% of respondents) and were considered the most relevant in improving cardiovascular care. Implantable technologies (sensors or devices), telemedicine and social media were also used by more than 2 out of 3 respondents and considered "very relevant" or "totally relevant" by most of them. Most participants showed positive expectations regarding the impact of DH in cardiovascular medicine: 78% agreed that DH might improve health outcomes, 64% that it promotes health literacy and 63% that it may decrease healthcare costs. The top-rated barriers were patients' inability to use smartphones, limited access to electronic devices, and lack of legal regulation of DH. Conclusion: Most Portuguese cardiovascular HCP had at least three electronic devices (primarily smartphones, laptops and tablets) and showed positive expectations regarding DH's current and future impact on cardiovascular medicine. Patient DH literacy, technology adoption, and DH regulation were identified as the most important blockers to increasing the adoption of DH tools in cardiovascular medicine.