Digital health at fifteen: more human (more needed).
Kit HuckvaleC Jason WangAzeem MajeedJosip CarPublished in: BMC medicine (2019)
There is growing appreciation that the success of digital health - whether digital tools, digital interventions or technology-based change strategies - is linked to the extent to which human factors are considered throughout design, development and implementation. A shift in focus to individuals as users and consumers of digital health highlights the capacity of the field to respond to secular developments, such as the adoption of person-centred care and consumer health technologies. We argue that this project is not only incomplete, but is fundamentally 'uncompletable' in the face of a highly dynamic landscape of both technological and human challenges. These challenges include the effects of consumerist, technology-supported care on care delivery, the rapid growth of digital users in low-income and middle-income countries and the impacts of machine learning. Digital health research will create most value by retaining a clear focus on the role of human factors in maximising health benefit, by helping health systems to anticipate and understand the person-centred effects of technology changes and by advocating strongly for the autonomy, rights and safety of consumers.
Keyphrases
- healthcare
- endothelial cells
- public health
- mental health
- quality improvement
- machine learning
- health information
- induced pluripotent stem cells
- palliative care
- pluripotent stem cells
- physical activity
- primary care
- human health
- climate change
- social media
- affordable care act
- electronic health record
- sensitive detection