TY - JOUR U1 - Zeitschriftenartikel, wissenschaftlich - begutachtet (reviewed) A1 - Albrecht, Urs-Vito A1 - Afshar, Kambiz A1 - Illiger, Kristin A1 - Becker, Stefan A1 - Hartz, Tobias A1 - Breil, Bernhard A1 - Wichelhaus, Daniel A1 - von Jan, Ute T1 - Expectancy, usage and acceptance by general practitioners and patients: exploratory results from a study in the German outpatient sector JF - Digital Health N2 - Objective The study’s objective was to assess factors contributing to the use of smart devices by general practitioners (GPs) and patients in the health domain, while specifically addressing the situation in Germany, and to determine whether, and if so, how both groups differ in their perceptions of these technologies. Methods GPs and patients of resident practices in the Hannover region, Germany, were surveyed between April and June 2014. A total of 412 GPs in this region were invited by email to participate via an electronic survey, with 50 GPs actually doing so (response rate 12.1%). For surveying the patients, eight regional resident practices were visited by study personnel (once each). Every second patient arriving there (inclusion criteria: of age, fluent in German) was asked to take part (paper-based questionnaire). One hundred and seventy patients participated; 15 patients who did not give consent were excluded. Results The majority of the participating patients (68.2%, 116/170) and GPs (76%, 38/50) owned mobile devices. Of the patients, 49.9% (57/116) already made health-related use of mobile devices; 95% (36/38) of the participating GPs used them in a professional context. For patients, age (P < 0.001) and education (P < 0.001) were significant factors, but not gender (P > 0.99). For doctors, neither age (P = 0.73), professional experience (P > 0.99) nor gender (P = 0.19) influenced usage rates. For patients, the primary use case was obtaining health (service)-related information. For GPs, interprofessional communication and retrieving information were in the foreground. There was little app-related interaction between both groups. Conclusions GPs and patients use smart mobile devices to serve their specific interests. However, the full potentials of mobile technologies for health purposes are not yet being taken advantage of. Doctors as well as other care providers and the patients should work together on exploring and realising the potential benefits of the technology. KW - mHealth KW - general practitioners KW - acceptance KW - smartphone KW - tablet KW - mobile health KW - digital divide KW - Smart Device KW - Hausarzt KW - Patient KW - Akzeptanz Y1 - 2017 UN - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:960-opus4-13471 U6 - https://doi.org/10.25968/opus-1347 DO - https://doi.org/10.25968/opus-1347 VL - 2017 SP - 1 EP - 22 ER -