Although I have not posted about Pharmacists and the use of the Internet and I have not found many research on this topic,  it’s clear that these health professionals are playing an important role in healthcare. Therefore, they also have a role in relationship with the Internet, specially Community Pharmacists, who are probably the most accessible health professional and are daily dealing with all kind of patients. Health promotion, Health prevention, Health Literacy, patients’ education,… are just some of the fields where Community Pharmacists can encourage patients to become more engaged in their own health care or their relatives health care.

Following our analysis of the integration of Information and Communication Technologies into medical practice and into nursing practice, we have analysed Community Pharmacists. The specific objectives were to develop and characterise a typology of CPs based on their ICT utilization and to identify factors that can enhance or inhibit the use of these technologies.

Cluster one consists of CPs whose information needs place a greater emphasis on international and national information; on activities related to professional education and information from the Pharmacists Association as well as workplace and pharmaceutical industry. This group also emphasizes ICT use for activities such as information search, communication and the dissemination of information as well as for corporate activities. This group is thus referred to as representing ‘integrated Community Pharmacist’. The label is used descriptively in order to capture the sense that for this group ICT are a mundane and valued resource. Cluster two is characterised by notably different features to the previous one. The second profile represents those CPs placing less emphasis on ICT so are consequently labelled as ‘non-integrated Community Pharmacist‘.

Statistical analysis of the relationship between these profiles  revealed that ‘integrated Community Pharmacist‘ are more likely to start using Internet at an earlier stage, to consider it very useful, to use this tool on a daily basis, to have a blog and to consider Internet health information very relevant. No significance association related to age, gender or pharmacy ownership was found.

Further analysis of the relationship between the two profiles and the pharmacist-patient relationship resulted in ‘integrated Community Pharmacist‘ being more likely than ‘non-integrated Community Pharmacist‘ to recommend that patients go online to find health information and to have more patients that discuss such information during a consultation. ‘Integrated Community Pharmacist‘ are also more likely to believe that patients going online for health information improve their autonomy and their quality of life as well as improving both the health professional/patient relationship and  the pharmacist/patient relationship. Finally, ‘integrated Community Pharmacist‘ are more likely to be found on the Internet searching or providing advice on professional forums. Additionally, drivers for ICT use such as improving communication with other health care professionals and improvement in work productivity are likely to have a higher impact on ‘integrated Community Pharmacist‘ while barriers such as lack of training or lack of time are less likely to challenge them.

It was observed that factors related with ‘intensive use of Internet’ (every day), ‘emphasis on Internet for communication and dissemination’ as well as information needs from the Pharmacists Professional Association play a positive and significant role in the probability of being an ‘integrated Community Pharmacist‘. Recommending patients going on-line for health information and discussing or sharing patients’ Internet health information findings also have a positive and significant role.

Acknowledgements

The research reported is part of a broad study supported by Departament de Salut de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalonia Health Department) and directed by Prof. Manuel Castells. Survey launched is a result of collaboration between the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute at Open University of Catalonia and the Pharmacist Association of Barcelona (Col.legi Oficial de Farmacèutics de Barcelona).

We are planning to launch again our survey to Physicians, Nurses and Pharmacists with the collaboration of their Professional Associations of Barcelona. Therefore, we are redesigning the questionnaires and checking our multivariate analysis. Following the published paper entitled “The integration of Information and Communication Technology into medical practice”, we have send to a peer-review journal another paper focused on Nurses. Below you can find the main figures:

Table 5 revealed that cluster one (4.58%) is composed of those nurses who make greater use of ICT and the Internet for access to clinical and scientific information. The nurses within this cluster are also more likely to use ICT as a resource for publishing and international contact on national and international information. This first profile represents those nurses who place high emphasis on ICT in that it forms an integral part of their practice. This group is thus referred to as representing ‘Integrated nurses’. In other words, ICT and the Internet has become an important tool to be used in the delivery of care for the ‘integrated nurse’.

Cluster two (95.42%) is characterised by a distinctive set of features. The second profile represents those nurses who place less emphasis on ICT so that it is used to support their daily work only when required. This group are consequently labelled ‘Non-integrated nurses’.

Statistical analysis of the relationship between the two profiles (see Table 6 of the presentation) revealed that ‘Integrated nurses’ are more likely than ‘Non-integrated nurses’ to carry out research activities, to consider the Internet is ‘very useful’ to their nursing practice and to recommend that their patients use online health information. ‘Non-integrated nurses’ are more likely than ‘integrated nurses’ to be only engaged in delivering nursing care and to believe that patients use of online information will have little impact on their treatment their or understanding of their condition.

Finally, it was found that all the variables included have a significance explanatory power regarding the integration of ICT within nursing practice (see Table 7). It was observed that an ‘emphasis on international information’, performance ‘research activities’ and ‘the perception that health information available on the Internet’ was relevant to nursing played a positive and significance role in the probability of being an ‘Integrated nurse’.

Acknowledgements

The research reported is part of a broad study supported by Departament de Salut de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalonia Health Department) and directed by Prof. Manuel Castells. Survey launched is a result of a collaboration between the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute at Open University of Catalonia and the Nurses Association of Barcelona (Col·legi Oficial de Infermeres de Barcelona).

I’m delighted to announce that the article entitled “The integration of Information and Communication Technology into medical practice” has been accepted and is already in press at the  International Journal of Medical Informatics. As soon as possible I will upload a pre-print version.

PREPRINT

Please cite this article as:

Lupiáñez-Villanueva, F., Hardey, M., Torrent, J., & Ficapal, P. (2010). The integration of Information and Communication Technology into medical practice. Int J Med Inform, 79(7), 478–491.

PUBMED link

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES:

To identify doctors’ utilization of ICT; to develop and characterise a typology of doctors’ utilization of ICT and to identify factors that can enhance or inhibit the use of these technologies within medical practice.

METHODS:

An online survey of the 16,531 members of the Physicians Association of Barcelona who had a registered email account in 2006 was carried out. Factor analysis, cluster analysis and binomial logit model were undertaken.

RESULTS:

Multivariate statistics analysis of the 2199 responses obtained revealed two profiles of adoption of ICT. The first profile (38.61% of respondents) represents those doctors who place high emphasis on ICT within their practice. This group is thus referred to as ‘integrated doctors’. The second profile (61.39% of respondents) represents those doctors who make less use of ICT so are consequently labelled ‘non-integrated doctors’. From the statistical modelling, it was observed that an emphasis on international information; emphasis on ICT for research and medical practice; emphasis on information systems to consult and prescribe; undertaking teaching/research activities; a belief that the use of the Internet improved communication with patients and practice in both public and private health organizations play a positive and significant role in the probability of being an ‘integrated doctor’.

CONCLUSIONS:

The integration of ICT within medical practice cannot be adequately understood and appreciated without examining how doctors are making use of ICT within their own practice, organizational contexts and the opportunities and constraints afforded by institutional, professional and patient expectations and demands.

Please cite this article as:

Lupiáñez-Villanueva, F., Hardey, M., Torrent, J., & Ficapal, P. (2010). The integration of Information and Communication Technology into medical practice. Int J Med Inform, 79(7), 478–491.

PUBMED link

After seven years working at Open University of Catalonia and its Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, I’m enjoying the benefits of an unpaid leave to begin a new professional adventure.  Yesterday, I started to work at at Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) in Seville, one of the seven scientific institutes of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC).

I would like to share the published information available at IPTS website about my new position:

Research Project Title
Economic Evaluation and modelling for Personal Health Systems

Project Description
The Information Society Unit has a vacancy to study the role of ICTs in the transformation of society in general and the lives of individuals in particular in the framework of Action 14003 ‘Techno-economic Impacts Enabling Societal Change’ (TIESC). This action is currently carrying out research on the role of ICTs in: (a) health and quality of life; (b) digital identity and information search. The successful candidate will analyse EU-wide market data and evaluate HealthCare (HC) policy options at EU level in relation to Personal Health Systems (PHS).

She/he will contribute to this work by making use of a range of tools (literature reviews, descriptive statistics, desk research, interviews, organisation of expert workshops, modeling methods, etc.) to develop evidence-based policy support at European level. She/he will author/review several reports and articles annually, conceive, launch, execute or coordinate research work, participate in seminars and make public presentations to high-level audiences. She/he should have experience in:

• Developing and improving working tools to measure emerging ICTs impacts on the EU health care markets;
• Data analysis and quantitative methods and an ability to explain them to technical as well as non-technical audiences
• Working knowledge of the different EU healthcare systems;
• Familiarity with public policy implications of new technologies and their economic and societal implications at EU or international level;
• Working in a multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary environment.

Candidates must hold a doctoral degree or having fulfilled all the obligations to obtain a PhD (certified by the university) or having a minimum of 5 years research experience after the first university degree giving access to doctoral studies (which may include periods of training such as a masters degree) in a field relevant to the JRC’s scientific activities.

A very good level of written and spoken English is essential and knowledge of at least one other EU language is compulsory.

I have to settle in the new position and also in Seville to learn how to keep collaborating with all my colleagues without any inconveniences with my new responsibilities. Furthermore, since now I have to use this

Disclaimer:

“The views expressed are purely those of the writer and may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission”

Lately, I have been checking and reading some scientific papers about health communication from:

• Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives
• Health Communication
• Patients Education and Counselling

The aim is to write a paper based on the presentation done with Michael Hardey:

The purpose of this paper is  to identify how health professionals view public use of the Internet and whether new forms of communication are emerging with the following objectives:

• To identify the utilisation, experience, expertise, barriers and expectations that doctors, nurses and community pharmacists have with the Internet and the email.
• To identify the experience and expectations that doctors, nurses and community pharmacists have with patients using the Internet.
• To identify factors that can enhance the integration of the recommendation of health information available on the Internet and the email within the health professional / patients relationship.

Any reference, suggestion, recommendation… about the presentation will be appreciated.

On March 15th to 18th the Ministerial High Level Conference on eHealth and the World Health IT Conference and Exhibition were being held in the same week in a joint initiative called “e-Health Week 2010”. First of all, I would like to congratulate the organizers, specially TICSALUT Foundation and ehealthweek2010, for the very well organized conference and their social media coverage.

The conference was divided into five themes:

• eHealth for Sustainable Healthcare Delivery
• eHealth Addressing Global Challenges through Local Actions
• eHealth works: Here is the Evidence
• eHealth Market: Past and Prospects
• eHealth User Platform

Furthermore,  Paralel sessions and Plenary Sessions were coveraged by @ehealthweek2010 using Twitter #hastag as follow:

Paralel Sessions

• eHealth Governance
• How can IT Help Fight Pandemics
• Is Sustainability of Healthcare Possible without eHealth?
• When Telemedicine does Deliver!
• Embedding eHealth into New Professional Curricula
• Ageing - A Global Challenge
• Empowering the Patient through Information Delivery
• Beyond Technical Interoperability
• eHealth for the Economy
• ICT for a Global Infraestructure for Health Research
• eHealth and Healthcare Org The Chiken and the Egg
• Standards for a Global Scene
• eHealth Procurement
• eHealth for Mental Health

Plenary Sessions

• The ehealth Agenda in the UE
• The right information, at correct place and at the right time
• 2.0 Health care in practice
• EU-US cooperation in eHealth: facing common challenges
• EHealth for urgent public health challenges
• How contributes eHealth in health and well being
• The impact of eHealth in organizations and health personnel
• The dangerous decade. Challenges for system builders national health information
• European market of e-health: dream or reality?

I also had the opportunity to tweet some of the sessions. On one hand, it was a wonderful opportunity for networking and for watching in action how policy-makers, practicioners (specially Hospital managers and IT managers) and the ICT Health industry work together. On the other hand, there was a lack of analytical/empirical presentations so it was remarked by most of the participants that more research is needed. Furthermore, there are many eHealth, mHealth, Health 2.0,…. Health has been always related to technology so probably it is time to delete all the letters and just talk about HEALTH. Nowadays, HEALTH could not be understood without Information and Communication Technologies and these technologies could not be understood without economic, organization, social and cultural changes.

I have collected all the presentations in the same post to summarise the information. Thank you very much indeed to all the participants for these inspiring and wonderful days. I would like also to express my gratitude to Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) for its support.

Workshop: Innovative health technologies: health systems in transition
Supported by: Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3)
Organized by: Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva (Internet Interdisciplinary
Institute –UOC) and Michael Hardey (Hull/York Medical School – Science and
Technology Studies Unit, Department of Sociology, University of York)
Data: 26th and 27th November
Place: Meeting room -1A , UOC IN3 building. Av. Canal Olímpic, s/n. Edifici B3,
08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona)

26th November

• Andrew Webster - Innovation in health: a social science perspective
• Michael Morrison - ‘Measuring Innovation - a brief introduction to
  the REMEDiE project’
• Laura Machin - Cord blood banking: initial observations
• Mariann Hardey - Private medical care and the Web
• Eulàlia Hernádez - Providing resources for caregivers trough the
  Internet.
• Flis Henwood - ‘Health-e discourse? Engaging the community in ehealth
  developments for obesity self-management’
• Sue Ziebland - Knowledge is Power? The role of health information

27th November

• Imma Grau - Studying Virtual Communities for patients with chronic
  illnesses, in Forumclinic
• Daniel López - Reframing telecare: an ethical discussion concerning
  ageing-in-place, independence and care.
• Darren Reed - Performativity of Data
• Michael Hardey - Consuming professions: user-review websites and health services.
• Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva and Michael Hardey - Health professionals, the Internet and Internet informed patients.

“Innovative health technologies: health systems in transition Workshop”

Supported by: Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3)

Organized by: Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva (Internet Interdisciplinary Institute –UOC) and Michael Hardey (Hull/York Medical School – Science and Technology Studies Unit, Department of Sociology, University of York)

Data: 27th November

Place: UOC IN3 building. Av. Canal Olímpic, s/n. Edifici B3, 08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona)

Darren Reed - Performativity of (Bio)Data

In this talk I will introduce the Public Life of Data project application and outline some early thoughts on the SATSU contribution. The application is concerned with the public and ‘lived’ nature of new forms of data in various realms. The SATSU thread is concerned with the biomedical field and specifically the nature of data in areas such as assistive technology and public biomedical information. By drawing on an earlier case study of the installation of domestic assistive technology, I will start to sketch out notions of the “performativity” and “bio-graphy” of data in this environment with reference to an analytic schema built around the three elements of ‘public’/'life’/'data’

Darren Reed

Sociologist who has worked within Human Computer Interaction and Science and Technology Studies for nine years. He looks to combine sociological theory and methods to practical ends, and is currently developing the conceptual area of a ‘performativity of age and technology’ to provide a major underpinning for continued work on the meaning and practices surrounding older peoples use, or non-use of technology, so as to better understand the barriers to the application of technology to care and support situations. These endeavours also incorporate stakeholder relationships, social structures and the ‘social construction’ of technology.

“Innovative health technologies: health systems in transition Workshop”

Supported by: Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3)

Organized by: Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva (Internet Interdisciplinary Institute –UOC) and Michael Hardey (Hull/York Medical School – Science and Technology Studies Unit, Department of Sociology, University of York)

Data: 27th November

Place: UOC IN3 building. Av. Canal Olímpic, s/n. Edifici B3, 08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona)

Daniel López presentation: Reframing telecare: an ethical discussion concerning ageing-in-place, independence and care.

Telecare has been presented by policy-makers and developers as a simple and cheap technology that enable ageing-in-place with autonomy. The aim of this presentation is to critically discuss what ageing-in-place with autonomy mean for elderly people using telecare. According to some results from ethnography conducted 4 years ago in a catalan telecare service, there are different ways of being autonomous enacted and, given that, also different conceptions of the body and of living at home. By presenting these complexities we want to put forward several ethical questions concerning the current telecare developments. First of all, what new arrangements, practices, collectives and relationships of care arise with the implementation of telecare and smart home systems in care for older people? How do these arrangements shape existing care practices? What definitions of care, and good care, are implied and embodied in the new care arrangements? How do these built-in definitions and normativities differ from and change existing practice? What implications do they have for the meanings of place, distance and home in care? These questions, among other, are being discussed in a FP7 project currently carried out by different research teams in Barcelona, Lancaster, Amsterdam and Oslo and coordinated by Maggie Mort. So in order to conclude, I would like to present these questions and make some remarks based on some insights taken from the current fieldwork and from the former research projects.

Daniel López

Assistant Professor at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Currently working on the implementation of new technologies in care settings like Home Telecare from an STS perspective. The main areas of interest are: a) the emergence of new spatialities and temporalities of care; b) the emergence of new practices of caring and security due to the increasing importance of technologies of accountability; and c) the enactment of hybrid forms of autonomy and independence. Currently involved in an FP7 project called “Ethical Frameworks for Telecare Technologies for older people at home (EFORTT) concerned with the implications of the introduction of remote care technologies worn, installed or embedded in the homes of older citizens/frail older people (see http://www.lancs.ac.uk/efortt/index.html) and also a project funded by the Ministerio called CONDEPCIU concerned with the techno-scientific controversies around the new Spanish care policies addressed to elderly/frail people.