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Review
. 2025 Mar 23;22(4):479.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph22040479.

Barriers to and Facilitators of Technology Adoption in Emergency Departments: A Comprehensive Review

Ann Thong Lee  1 , R Kanesaraj Ramasamy  2 , Anusuyah Subbarao  1
Affiliations
Review

Barriers to and Facilitators of Technology Adoption in Emergency Departments: A Comprehensive Review

Ann Thong Lee et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Even while technology is advancing quickly in many areas, the healthcare industry, particularly emergency departments, is slow to incorporate new technologies. The majority of research is on healthcare in general, with few studies examining medical officers' adoption of technology in emergency departments.

Methods: This study used a comprehensive review design and examined a total of 30 peer-reviewed articles that were published between 2019 and 2024. The articles were reviewed by using keywords such as "technology adoption", "influence factors", "medical technology", "barriers", "healthcare", "emergency departments", "ED", and so on. This review aimed to identify barriers and facilitators to provide insights to improve technology adoption in emergency departments.

Results: The studies were conducted using different techniques, including surveys, interviews, and systematic reviews, to examine technology adoption in emergency departments across different geographic locations. The technologies studied include clinical decision support systems, telemedicine, electronic health records, and AI-based innovations. Several barriers were discovered in this study, including high employee turnover, accessibility issues, insufficient technology availability, resistance to change, and excessive workload. Key enabling facilitators were also identified, namely, good collaboration and communication, a supportive and engaged management team, and rigorous education and training.

Conclusions: This study highlights that tailored strategies and collaboration are essential to overcoming barriers in emergency departments, which will lead to faster adoption of technologies that improve patient outcomes and efficiency. Further research will involve performing a deeper study of these findings and investigating more creative techniques to improve technology integration and further establish higher standards of care inside emergency departments.

Keywords: A&E; ED; ER; accident and emergency; acute care; barriers; emergency; emergency care; emergency departments; emergency medicine; emergency room; healthcare; influence factors; medical technology; technology adoption.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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