Health care professionals' attitudes and acceptance towards and experiences of digital health (eHealth) services

Abstract: The Nordic countries share common interests to digitize services in the health care sector from which their eHealth strategies are a proof of. Sweden has specifically put effort on the global scheme by setting a goal of being the best in eHealth by 2025. As one of the main goals of the strategies is increasing patient empowerment, perspective of the health care professionals in this digital shift has yet remained less noticed and the concrete effects on them is still scarcely studied. This study focuses on providing the aspect of the health care professionals and how they have perceived and experienced the digital tools and eHealth services affecting their work and what attitudes they themselves have as users.                                This study utilized the mixed method approach and was done in collaboration with the Digga Halland project which aims towards enhancing health care workers’ digital competences and conditions to utilize eHealth. Previously collected baseline survey data from health care professionals in different municipalities in the Halland region was analysed and five health care professionals were recruited for in-depth, phenomenological interviews.             The results of this research indicate that the use of digital tools and services is common among health care professionals at work and outside work and the workers consider their digital competence rather good. However, the interview respondents presented varying attitudes towards digital services and eHealth depending on whether the services were evaluated from a professional role or outside work role when the professionals used the services themselves. Also, the current professional position guided whether the digital shift and eHealth were experienced more positively or negatively.