TY - JOUR
T1 - The Uptake and Use of Telemonitoring in Chronic Care Between 2014 and 2019
T2 - Nationwide Survey Among Patients and Health Care Professionals in the Netherlands
AU - Huygens, Martine W J
AU - Voogdt-Pruis, Helene R
AU - Wouters, Myrah
AU - Meurs, Maaike M
AU - van Lettow, Britt
AU - Kleijweg, Conchita
AU - Friele, Roland D
N1 - Funding Information:
The project was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. The Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport had no role in the collection, analysis, or interpretation of data or in writing the manuscript. The authors would like to acknowledge all other people who were involved in data collection during 2013-2019; in particular, Johan Krijgsman, Ilse Swinkels, Judith de Jong, Janke de Groot, Anne Brabers, Lies van Gennip, Karlijn de Bruin, and Annemarie Lamain. In addition, the authors would like to thank the members of the advisory committee in 2019: Guus Schrijvers, Christine Aberson-Blok, Arina Burghouts, Jeroen Crasborn, Henny Mulders, Henk Herman Nap, Sjaak Nouwt, Renée Verwey, Karin Zwager-Ankone, and Nienke Zwennes.
Funding Information:
The project was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. The Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport had no role in the collection, analysis, or interpretation of data or in writing the manuscript. The authors would like to acknowledge all other people who were involved in data collection during 2013-2019; in particular, Johan Krijgsman, Ilse Swinkels, Judith de Jong, Janke de Groot, Anne Brabers, Lies van Gennip, Karlijn de Bruin, and Annemarie Lamain. In addition, the authors would like to thank the members of the advisory committee in 2019: Guus Schrijvers, Christine Aberson-Blok, Arina Burghouts, Jeroen Crasborn, Henny Mulders, Henk Herman Nap, Sjaak Nouwt, Ren?e Verwey, Karin Zwager-Ankone, and Nienke Zwennes.
Publisher Copyright:
© Martine W J Huygens, Helene R Voogdt-Pruis, Myrah Wouters, Maaike M Meurs, Britt van Lettow, Conchita Kleijweg, Roland D Friele. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 03.05.2021. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
PY - 2021/5/1
Y1 - 2021/5/1
N2 - BACKGROUND: Telemonitoring could offer solutions to the mounting challenges for health care and could improve patient self-management. Studies have addressed the benefits and challenges of telemonitoring for certain patient groups.OBJECTIVE: This paper will examine the nationwide uptake of telemonitoring in chronic care in the Netherlands from 2014 to 2019 by means of an annual representative survey among patients and health care professionals.METHODS: Between 2014 and 2019, approximately 2900 patients with chronic diseases, 700 nurses, and 500 general practitioners (GPs) and medical specialists received a questionnaire. About 30 questions addressed topics about the use of eHealth and experiences with it, including data about telemonitoring.RESULTS: Between 2014 and 2019, the use of telemonitoring remained stable for all groups except medical specialists. In medical specialist departments, the use of telemonitoring increased from 11.2% (18/161) in 2014 to 19.6% (36/184) in 2019 (χ24=12.3; P=.02). In 2019, telemonitoring was used by 5.8% (28/485) of people with chronic disease. This was 18.2% (41/225) in GP organizations and 40.4% (44/109), 38.0% (78/205), and 8.9% (29/325) in the organizations of nurses working in primary, secondary, and elderly care, respectively. Up to 10% of the targeted patient group such as diabetics were regarded by health care professionals as suitable for using telemonitoring. The main benefits mentioned by the patients were "comfort" (421/1043, 40.4%) and "living at home for longer/more comfortably" (334/1047, 31.9%). Health care professionals added "improvement of self-management" (63/176, 35.8% to 57/71, 80.3%), "better understanding of the patient's condition" (47/176, 26.7% to 42/71, 59.2%), "reduction of workload" (53/134, 39.6% of nurses in elderly care), "better tailoring of care plan to the patient's situation" (95/225, 42.2% of GPs), and "saves time for patients/caregivers" (61/176, 34.7% of medical specialists). Disadvantages mentioned by professionals were that "it takes time to monitor data" (13/130, 10% to 108/225, 48.0%), "it takes time to follow up alerts" (15/130, 11.5% to 117/225, 52.0%), and "it is difficult to estimate which patients can work with telemonitoring" (22/113, 19.5% to 94/225, 41.8%).CONCLUSIONS: The uptake of telemonitoring in Dutch chronic care remained stable during 2014-2019 but increased among medical specialists. According to both patients and professionals, telemonitoring improves the quality of life and quality of care. Skills for suitably including eligible patients and for allocating the tasks of data monitoring and follow-up care within the team would help to further increase the use of telemonitoring.
AB - BACKGROUND: Telemonitoring could offer solutions to the mounting challenges for health care and could improve patient self-management. Studies have addressed the benefits and challenges of telemonitoring for certain patient groups.OBJECTIVE: This paper will examine the nationwide uptake of telemonitoring in chronic care in the Netherlands from 2014 to 2019 by means of an annual representative survey among patients and health care professionals.METHODS: Between 2014 and 2019, approximately 2900 patients with chronic diseases, 700 nurses, and 500 general practitioners (GPs) and medical specialists received a questionnaire. About 30 questions addressed topics about the use of eHealth and experiences with it, including data about telemonitoring.RESULTS: Between 2014 and 2019, the use of telemonitoring remained stable for all groups except medical specialists. In medical specialist departments, the use of telemonitoring increased from 11.2% (18/161) in 2014 to 19.6% (36/184) in 2019 (χ24=12.3; P=.02). In 2019, telemonitoring was used by 5.8% (28/485) of people with chronic disease. This was 18.2% (41/225) in GP organizations and 40.4% (44/109), 38.0% (78/205), and 8.9% (29/325) in the organizations of nurses working in primary, secondary, and elderly care, respectively. Up to 10% of the targeted patient group such as diabetics were regarded by health care professionals as suitable for using telemonitoring. The main benefits mentioned by the patients were "comfort" (421/1043, 40.4%) and "living at home for longer/more comfortably" (334/1047, 31.9%). Health care professionals added "improvement of self-management" (63/176, 35.8% to 57/71, 80.3%), "better understanding of the patient's condition" (47/176, 26.7% to 42/71, 59.2%), "reduction of workload" (53/134, 39.6% of nurses in elderly care), "better tailoring of care plan to the patient's situation" (95/225, 42.2% of GPs), and "saves time for patients/caregivers" (61/176, 34.7% of medical specialists). Disadvantages mentioned by professionals were that "it takes time to monitor data" (13/130, 10% to 108/225, 48.0%), "it takes time to follow up alerts" (15/130, 11.5% to 117/225, 52.0%), and "it is difficult to estimate which patients can work with telemonitoring" (22/113, 19.5% to 94/225, 41.8%).CONCLUSIONS: The uptake of telemonitoring in Dutch chronic care remained stable during 2014-2019 but increased among medical specialists. According to both patients and professionals, telemonitoring improves the quality of life and quality of care. Skills for suitably including eligible patients and for allocating the tasks of data monitoring and follow-up care within the team would help to further increase the use of telemonitoring.
KW - EHealth
KW - Self-management
KW - Telehealth
KW - Telemedicine
KW - Telemonitoring
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105390073&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2196/24908
DO - 10.2196/24908
M3 - Article
C2 - 33938808
SN - 1438-8871
VL - 23
SP - 1
EP - 11
JO - Journal of Medical Internet Research
JF - Journal of Medical Internet Research
IS - 5
M1 - e24908
ER -