A Pragmatic Mapping of Perceptions and Use of Digital Information Systems in Primary Care in Sweden: Survey Study

BACKGROUND

Electronic health records and IT infrastructure in primary care allow for digital documentation and access to information, which can be used to guide evidence-based care and monitor patient safety and quality of care. Quality indicators specified by regulatory authorities can be automatically computed and presented to primary care staff. However, the implementation of digital information systems (DIS) in health care can be challenging, and understanding factors such as relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability is needed to improve the success and rate of adoption and diffusion.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to explore how DIS are used and perceived by health care professionals in primary care.

METHODS

This study used quantitative assessment to gather survey data on the use and potential of DIS in health care in Sweden from the perspectives of primary care personnel in various roles. The digital questionnaire was designed to be short and contained 3 sections covering respondent characteristics, current use of platforms, and perceptions of decision support tools. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, nonparametric hypothesis testing, ordinal coefficient α, and confirmatory factor analysis.

RESULTS

The study collected responses from participants across 10 regions of Sweden, comprising 31.9% (n=22) from private clinics and 68.1% (n=47) from public clinics. Participants included administrators (18/69, 26.1%), a medical strategist (1/69, 1.4%), and physicians (50/69, 72.5%). Usage frequency varied as follows: 11.6% (n=8) used DIS weekly, 24.6% (n=17) monthly, 27.5% (n=19) a few times a year, 26.1% (n=18) very rarely, and 10.1% (n=7) lacked access. Administrators used DIS more frequently than physicians (P=.005). DIS use centered on quality improvement and identifying high-risk patients, with differences by role. Physicians were more inclined to use DIS out of curiosity (P=.01). Participants desired DIS for patient follow-up, lifestyle guidance, treatment suggestions, reminders, and shared decision-making. Administrators favored predictive analysis (P<.001), while physicians resisted immediate patient identification (P=.03). The 5 innovation attributes showed high internal consistency (α>.7). These factors explained 78.5% of questionnaire variance, relating to complexity, competitive advantage, compatibility, trialability, and observability. Factors 2, 3, and 4 predicted intention to use DIS, with factor 2 alone achieving the best accuracy (root-mean-square=0.513).

CONCLUSIONS

Administrators and physicians exhibited role-based DIS use patterns highlighting the need for tailored approaches to promote DIS adoption. The study reveals a link between positive perceptions and intention to use DIS, emphasizing the significance of considering all factors for successful health care integration. The results suggest various directions for future studies. These include refining the trialability and observability questions for increased reliability and validity, investigating a larger sample with more specific target groups to improve generalization, and exploring the relevance of different groups' perspectives and needs in relation to decisions about and use of DIS.

Using nudges to promote clinical decision making of healthcare professionals: A scoping review

Nudging has been discussed in the context of policy and public health, but not so much within healthcare. This scoping review aimed to assess the empirical evidence on how nudging techniques can be used to affect the behavior of healthcare professionals (HCPs) in clinical settings. A systematic database search was conducted for the period January 2010-December 2020 using the PRISMA extension for Scoping Review checklist. Two reviewers independently screened each article for inclusion. Included articles were reviewed to extract key information about each intervention, including purpose, target behavior, measured outcomes, key findings, nudging strategies, intervention objectives and their theoretical underpinnings. Two independent dimensions, building on Kahneman's System 1 and System 2, were used to describe nudging strategies according to user action and timing of their implementation. Of the included 51 articles, 40 reported statistically significant results, six were not significant and two reported mixed results. Thirteen different nudging strategies were identified aimed at modifying four types of HPCs' behavior: prescriptions and orders, procedure, hand hygiene, and vaccination. The most common nudging strategy employed were defaults or pre-orders, followed by alerts or reminders, and active choice. Many interventions did not require any deliberate action from users, here termed passive interventions, such as automatically changing prescriptions to their generic equivalent unless indicated by the user. Passive nudges may be successful in changing the target outcome but may go unnoticed by the user. Future work should consider the broader ethical implications of passive nudges.

Promoting work ability with a wearable activity tracker in working age individuals with hip and/or knee osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled trial

Background

Physical activity (PA) may improve work ability and health in individuals with hip and/or knee osteoarthritis (OA). The use of wearable activity trackers (WATs) has been shown to increase PA and improve other health outcomes but little is known concerning their effect on work ability. The objectives of this study were to examine the effect of self-monitoring PA with a WAT on work ability, PA and work productivity among individuals of working age with hip and/or knee OA.

Methods

Individuals (n = 160) were included and cluster-randomized to a Supported Osteoarthritis Self-management Program (SOASP) with the addition of self-monitoring PA using a commercial WAT for 12 weeks (n = 86), or only the SOASP (n = 74). Primary outcome was self-reported work ability measured with the Work Ability Index (WAI) and secondary outcomes were self-reported PA measured with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire – Short Form (IPAQ-SF) and work productivity, measured with the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment scale: Osteoarthritis (WPAI:OA) at baseline and after 3, 6 and 12 months. Data was primarily analysed with linear mixed models.

Results

Participants with data from baseline and at least one follow-up were included in the analyses (n = 124). Linear mixed models showed no statistically significant difference between groups regarding pattern of change in work ability or PA, from baseline to follow-ups. Also, neither group had a statistically significant difference in work ability between baseline and each follow-up.

Conclusion

The SOASP together with self-monitoring PA with a WAT did not have any effect on the primary outcome variable work ability. Participants already at baseline had good work ability and were physically active, which could have reduced the possibility for improvements. Future interventions should target a population with lower work ability and PA-level.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03354091. Registered 15/11/2017.

Nudging healthcare professionals in clinical settings: a scoping review of the literature

BACKGROUND

Healthcare organisations are in constant need of improvement and change. Nudging has been proposed as a strategy to affect people's choices and has been used to affect patients' behaviour in healthcare settings. However, little is known about how nudging is being interpreted and applied to change the behaviour of healthcare professionals (HCPs). The objective of this review is to identify interventions using nudge theory to affect the behaviour of HCPs in clinical settings.

METHODS

A scoping review. We searched PubMed and PsycINFO for articles published from 2010 to September 2019, including terms related to "nudging" in the title or abstract. Two reviewers screened articles for inclusion based on whether the articles described an intervention to change the behaviour of HCPs. Two reviewers extracted key information and categorized included articles. Descriptive analyses were performed on the data.

RESULTS

Search results yielded 997 unique articles, of which 25 articles satisfied the inclusion criteria. Five additional articles were selected from the reference lists of the included articles. We identified 11 nudging strategies: accountable justification, goal setting, suggested alternatives, feedback, information transparency, peer comparison, active choice, alerts and reminders, environmental cueing/priming, defaults/pre-orders, and education. These strategies were employed to affect the following 4 target behaviours: vaccination of staff, hand hygiene, clinical procedures, prescriptions and orders. To compare approaches across so many areas, we introduced two independent dimensions to describe nudging strategies: synchronous/asynchronous, and active/passive.

CONCLUSION

There are relatively few studies published referring to nudge theory aimed at changing HCP behaviour in clinical settings. These studies reflect a diverse set of objectives and implement nudging strategies in a variety of ways. We suggest distinguishing active from passive nudging strategies. Passive nudging strategies may achieve the desired outcome but go unnoticed by the clinician thereby not really changing a behaviour and raising ethical concerns. Our review indicates that there are successful active strategies that engage with clinicians in a more deliberate way. However, more research is needed on how different nudging strategies impact HCP behaviour in the short and long term to improve clinical decision making.

Physical activity patterns, adherence to using a wearable activity tracker during a 12-week period and correlation between self-reported function and physical activity in working age individuals with hip and/or knee osteoarthritis

Background

A majority of individuals with osteoarthritis (OA) are insufficiently physically active. Self-monitoring with wearable activity trackers (WAT) could promote physical activity (PA), and increased knowledge of PA patterns and adherence to using a WAT is needed. The aim of this study was to describe PA patterns and adherence to WAT-use during an intervention among participants of working age with hip and/or knee OA. The study further explores the correlation between self-reported joint function and PA.

Methods

Individuals of working age with hip and/or knee OA who used a WAT, Fitbit Flex 2, for 12 weeks were included. Participants monitored their PA in the Fitbit-app. An activity goal of 7,000 steps/day was set. Steps and minutes in light (L), moderate and vigorous (MV) PA were collected from the Fitbit. Self-reported joint function (HOOS/KOOS) was completed. Data was analyzed with linear mixed models and Spearman’s rank correlation.

Results

Seventy-five participants (45–66 years) walked on average 10 593 (SD 3431) steps/day, spent 248.5 (SD 42.2) minutes in LPA/day, 48.1 (SD 35.5) minutes in MVPA/day, 336.0 (SD 249.9) minutes in MVPA/week and used the Fitbit for an average of 88.4 % (SD 11.6) of the 12-week period. 86.7 % took > 7,000 steps/day and 77.3 % spent > 150 min in MVPA/week. Mean daily steps/week decreased significantly over the 12 weeks (β-coefficient − 117, 95 % CI -166 to -68, p = < 0.001) as well as mean daily minutes in LPA/week (β-coefficient − 2.3, 95 % CI -3.3 to -1.4, p = < 0.001), mean daily minutes in MVPA/week (β-coefficient − 0.58, 95 % CI -1.01 to -0.16, p = 0.008) and mean adherence to Fitbit-use per week (β-coefficient − 1.3, 95 % CI -1.8 to -0.8, p = < 0.001). There were no significant correlations between function (HOOS/KOOS) and PA.

Conclusions

The majority of participants reached 7,000 steps/day and the recommended 150 min in MVPA per week. However, PA decreased slightly but gradually over time. Adherence to using the Fitbit was high but also decreased during the intervention. Understanding PA patterns and the use of a Fitbit to promote PA could be beneficial in tailoring interventions for individuals with hip and/or knee OA.

How Behavior Change Strategies are Used to Design Digital Interventions to Improve Medication Adherence and Blood Pressure Among Patients With Hypertension: Systematic Review

BACKGROUND

Information on how behavior change strategies have been used to design digital interventions (DIs) to improve blood pressure (BP) control or medication adherence (MA) for patients with hypertension is currently limited.

OBJECTIVE

Hypertension is a major modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and can be controlled with appropriate medication. Many interventions that target MA to improve BP are increasingly using modern digital technologies. This systematic review was conducted to discover how DIs have been designed to improve MA and BP control among patients with hypertension in the recent 10 years. Results were mapped into a matrix of change objectives using the Intervention Mapping framework to guide future development of technologies to improve MA and BP control.

METHODS

We included all the studies regarding DI development to improve MA or BP control for patients with hypertension published in PubMed from 2008 to 2018. All the DI components were mapped into a matrix of change objectives using the Intervention Mapping technique by eliciting the key determinant factors (from patient and health care team and system levels) and targeted patient behaviors.

RESULTS

The analysis included 54 eligible studies. The determinants were considered at two levels: patient and health care team and system. The most commonly described determinants at the patient level were lack of education, lack of self-awareness, lack of self-efficacy, and forgetfulness. Clinical inertia and an inadequate health workforce were the most commonly targeted determinants at the health care team and system level. Taking medication, interactive patient-provider communication, self-measurement, and lifestyle management were the most cited patient behaviors at both levels. Most of the DIs did not include support from peers or family members, despite its reported effectiveness and the rate of social media penetration.

CONCLUSIONS

This review highlights the need to design a multifaceted DI that can be personalized according to patient behavior(s) that need to be changed to overcome the key determinant(s) of low adherence to medication or uncontrolled BP among patients with hypertension, considering different levels including patient and healthcare team and system involvement.

Training machine learning models to predict 30-day mortality in patients discharged from the emergency department: a retrospective, population-based registry study

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this work was to train machine learning models to identify patients at end of life with clinically meaningful diagnostic accuracy, using 30-day mortality in patients discharged from the emergency department (ED) as a proxy.

DESIGN

Retrospective, population-based registry study.

SETTING

Swedish health services.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES

All cause 30-day mortality.

METHODS

Electronic health records (EHRs) and administrative data were used to train six supervised machine learning models to predict all-cause mortality within 30 days in patients discharged from EDs in southern Sweden, Europe.

PARTICIPANTS

The models were trained using 65 776 ED visits and validated on 55 164 visits from a separate ED to which the models were not exposed during training.

RESULTS

The outcome occurred in 136 visits (0.21%) in the development set and in 83 visits (0.15%) in the validation set. The model with highest discrimination attained ROC-AUC 0.95 (95% CI 0.93 to 0.96), with sensitivity 0.87 (95% CI 0.80 to 0.93) and specificity 0.86 (0.86 to 0.86) on the validation set.

CONCLUSIONS

Multiple models displayed excellent discrimination on the validation set and outperformed available indexes for short-term mortality prediction interms of ROC-AUC (by indirect comparison). The practical utility of the models increases as the data they were trained on did not require costly de novo collection but were real-world data generated as a by-product of routine care delivery.

Readmission prediction using deep learning on electronic health records

Unscheduled 30-day readmissions are a hallmark of Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) patients that pose significant health risks and escalate care cost. In order to reduce readmissions and curb the cost of care, it is important to initiate targeted intervention programs for patients at risk of readmission. This requires identifying high-risk patients at the time of discharge from hospital. Here, using real data from over 7500 CHF patients hospitalized between 2012 and 2016 in Sweden, we built and tested a deep learning framework to predict 30-day unscheduled readmission. We present a cost-sensitive formulation of Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network using expert features and contextual embedding of clinical concepts. This study targets key elements of an Electronic Health Record (EHR) driven prediction model in a single framework: using both expert and machine derived features, incorporating sequential patterns and addressing the class imbalance problem. We evaluate the contribution of each element towards prediction performance (ROC-AUC, F1-measure) and cost-savings. We show that the model with all key elements achieves higher discrimination ability (AUC: 0.77; F1: 0.51; Cost: 22% of maximum possible savings) outperforming the reduced models in at least two evaluation metrics. Additionally, we present a simple financial analysis to estimate annual savings if targeted interventions are offered to high risk patients.

[Ecology of mosquitoes in areas of the National Park of "Serra da Bocaina", Brazil: II - Monthly frequency and climatic factors]

OBJECTIVE

To establish the influence of climatic factors on the monthly frequency of mosquito fauna in areas of the National Park of Serra da Bocaina, Brazil.

METHODS

Human bait collections were conducted once a month, in diurnal and nocturnal hours, throughout 24 months, from January 1991 to December 1992.

RESULTS

A total of 11,808 adult mosquitoes belonging to 28 different species were collected. Anopheles cruzii, Runchomyia reversa, and Ru. frontosa were the most commonly found species each month. An. cruzii was found mostly from October to February; Ru. reversa and Ru. frontosa predominated in September. An. lutzi, Chagasia fajardoi, Coquillettidia chrysonotum, Aedes serratus, Trichoprosopon simile, Wyeomyia theobaldi, Ru. humboldti, and Ru. theobaldi are the second most prevalent species and they were found mostly throughout the hottest, rainiest and most humid months. Temperature and rainfall have positively influenced the incidence of the majority of the species.

CONCLUSIONS

The exuberant and well-preserved tropical forest of Mata Atlântica, rainfalls, and temperatures had a direct and significant contribution to the mosquito fauna in the park. In the months with greater rainfalls, temperatures and humidity, there was an increase in the density and diversity of mosquito species. The period from September to March was the most favorable for their proliferation. In the colder and drier period, from April to August, about 70% of the species showed a significant decline in number, and they were hardly found during these months.

[Ecology of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in areas of Serra da Bocaina National Park, Brazil. I. Habitat distribution]

OBJECTIVE

To assess the mosquito fauna in Serra da Bocaina National Park (PNSB), by collecting information through a general survey, and investigating the population behavior in habitats within the park with different vegetation.

METHODS

Human bait collections were conducted once a month for both the forest and households, in diurnal and nocturnal periods, three time a day, throughout 24 months, from January 1991 to December 1992.

RESULTS

A total of 11, 808 adult mosquitoes belonging to 28 species were collected. Runchomyia reversa and Anopheles cruzii were the most abundant, reaching 52.5% and 17.9% of the total collected specimens, respectively. In the dense forest, Ru. reversa comprised 59.4% of the total, followed by Ru. frontosa with 10.5%, and An. cruzii with 9.9%. In the high altitude fields and in gallery forest, An. cruzii was the most abundant (48.1%) followed by Ru. reversa (28.1%). Inside households An. cruzii was also the most prominent species, representing 73.7% of the total for that location. Coquillettidia chrysonotum was the only species mainly seen in the household surroundings, where its distribution was: 14.9% (indoors), 19.4% (close to the house), and 65.7% (outdoors). An. cruzii and Ru. reversa were found throughout the whole year and captured every month.

CONCLUSIONS

Mosquitoes in PNSB present an assynanthropic behavior, except for Cq. chrysonotum which lives preferentially in the household environment. Though An. cruzii is an assynantropic species it may approaches live near households and even invades and infest them for the blood meals. The occurrence of Aedes serratus in the household vicinity emphasizes its epidemiological importance as a potential vector of arboviruses. Sabethini are all exclusively sylvatic species.