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Review
. 2023 Sep 18;6(1):161.
doi: 10.1038/s41746-023-00899-4.

Barriers and facilitators to utilizing digital health technologies by healthcare professionals

Israel Júnior Borges do Nascimento  1   2 , Hebatullah Abdulazeem  3 , Lenny Thinagaran Vasanthan  4 , Edson Zangiacomi Martinez  5 , Miriane Lucindo Zucoloto  5 , Lasse Østengaard  6 , Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat  1 , Tomas Zapata  1 , David Novillo-Ortiz  7
Affiliations
Review

Barriers and facilitators to utilizing digital health technologies by healthcare professionals

Israel Júnior Borges do Nascimento et al. NPJ Digit Med. .

Abstract

Digital technologies change the healthcare environment, with several studies suggesting barriers and facilitators to using digital interventions by healthcare professionals (HPs). We consolidated the evidence from existing systematic reviews mentioning barriers and facilitators for the use of digital health technologies by HP. Electronic searches were performed in five databases (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Embase®, Epistemonikos, MEDLINE®, and Scopus) from inception to March 2023. We included reviews that reported barriers or facilitators factors to use technology solutions among HP. We performed data abstraction, methodological assessment, and certainty of the evidence appraisal by at least two authors. Overall, we included 108 reviews involving physicians, pharmacists, and nurses were included. High-quality evidence suggested that infrastructure and technical barriers (Relative Frequency Occurrence [RFO] 6.4% [95% CI 2.9-14.1]), psychological and personal issues (RFO 5.3% [95% CI 2.2-12.7]), and concerns of increasing working hours or workload (RFO 3.9% [95% CI 1.5-10.1]) were common concerns reported by HPs. Likewise, high-quality evidence supports that training/educational programs, multisector incentives, and the perception of technology effectiveness facilitate the adoption of digital technologies by HPs (RFO 3.8% [95% CI 1.8-7.9]). Our findings showed that infrastructure and technical issues, psychological barriers, and workload-related concerns are relevant barriers to comprehensively and holistically adopting digital health technologies by HPs. Conversely, deploying training, evaluating HP's perception of usefulness and willingness to use, and multi-stakeholders incentives are vital enablers to enhance the HP adoption of digital interventions.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. PRISMA flow chart diagram.
Reason 1—wrong intervention or platform was unclear. Reason 2—the study did not provide any relevant outcome influencing healthcare providers. Reason 3—targeted population was not healthcare providers. Reason 4—study design used did not match our inclusion criteria.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Overview of the network map of the most frequently identified terms among included studies.
Please note that in the network visualization, items are represented by their label and by default also by a rectangles. The size of the label and the circle of an item is determined by the weight of the item. The higher the weight of an item, the larger the label and the circle of the item. The color of an item is determined by the cluster to which the item belongs.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Relative frequency meta-analysis of most reported barriers for the use of digital health technologies by healthcare professionals.
Frequencies (expressed as % and their confidence interval) are distributed among each categorized barriers as well as by healthcare technology modality.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4. Relative frequency meta-analysis of most reported facilitators for the use of digital health technologies by healthcare professionals.
Frequencies (expressed as % and their confidence interval) are distributed among each categorized facilitators as well as by healthcare technology modality.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Conceptual map of reported barriers and potential facilitators and recommendations to overcome these barriers.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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