TY - JOUR
T1 - Low Adoption of Video Consultations in Post-COVID-19 General Practice in Northern Europe
T2 - Barriers to Use and Potential Action Points
AU - Hvidt, Elisabeth Assing
AU - Atherton, Helen
AU - Keuper, Jelle
AU - Kristiansen, Eli
AU - Lüchau, Elle Christine
AU - Norberg, Børge Lønnebakke
AU - Steinhäuser, Jost
AU - van den Heuvel, Johannes
AU - van Tuyl, Lilian
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Elisabeth Assing Hvidt, Helen Atherton, Jelle Keuper, Eli Kristiansen, Elle Christine Lüchau, Børge Lønnebakke Norberg, Jost Steinhäuser, Johannes van den Heuvel, Lilian van Tuyl. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 22.05.2023. 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 - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, video consultation was introduced in general practice in many countries around the world as a solution to provide remote health care to patients. It was assumed that video consultation would find widespread adoption in post-COVID-19 general practice. However, adoption rates remain low across countries in Northern Europe, suggesting that barriers to its use exist among general practitioners and other practice staff. In this viewpoint, we take a comparative approach, reflecting on similarities and differences in implementation conditions of video consultations in 5 Northern European countries' general practice settings that might have created barriers to its use within general practice. We convened at a cross-disciplinary seminar in May 2022 with researchers and clinicians from 5 Northern European countries with expertise in digital care in general practice, and this viewpoint emerged out of dialogues from that seminar. We have reflected on barriers across general practice settings in our countries, such as lacking technological and financial support for general practitioners, that we feel are critical for adoption of video consultation in the coming years. Furthermore, there is a need to further investigate the contribution of cultural elements, such as professional norms and values, to adoption. This viewpoint may inform policy work to ensure that a sustainable level of video consultation use can be reached in the future, one that reflects the reality of general practice settings rather than policy optimism.
AB - In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, video consultation was introduced in general practice in many countries around the world as a solution to provide remote health care to patients. It was assumed that video consultation would find widespread adoption in post-COVID-19 general practice. However, adoption rates remain low across countries in Northern Europe, suggesting that barriers to its use exist among general practitioners and other practice staff. In this viewpoint, we take a comparative approach, reflecting on similarities and differences in implementation conditions of video consultations in 5 Northern European countries' general practice settings that might have created barriers to its use within general practice. We convened at a cross-disciplinary seminar in May 2022 with researchers and clinicians from 5 Northern European countries with expertise in digital care in general practice, and this viewpoint emerged out of dialogues from that seminar. We have reflected on barriers across general practice settings in our countries, such as lacking technological and financial support for general practitioners, that we feel are critical for adoption of video consultation in the coming years. Furthermore, there is a need to further investigate the contribution of cultural elements, such as professional norms and values, to adoption. This viewpoint may inform policy work to ensure that a sustainable level of video consultation use can be reached in the future, one that reflects the reality of general practice settings rather than policy optimism.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85159756208&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2196/47173
DO - 10.2196/47173
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 37213196
AN - SCOPUS:85159756208
SN - 1438-8871
VL - 25
SP - e47173
JO - Journal of Medical Internet Research
JF - Journal of Medical Internet Research
M1 - e47173
ER -