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Weber F.1, Rieckmann A.1, Grueneberg C.1
1Hochschule fuer Gesundheit, Department of Applied Health Sciences, Bochum, Germany
Background: Over the last years the digitalization within healthcare is gaining more and more importance. Driven by increasing social and economical demands to use digital media, there is a growing need for electronic health records. Therefore, the usage of patient data as well as the (interprofessional) communication between healthcare providers and patients should be strengthened. Recently the approach and implementation of evidence-based practice to increase the quality in physiotherapy is gaining more significance.
Purpose: We developed the electronic health record system TheraAssist as an application software (app) based on a determination of requirements using an online-survey among German physiotherapists and a literature research. The aim of our study is to investigate the usability of the app, as well as the intuitive perspective for users, the level of standardization and the level of support.
Methods: Five physiotherapists working in an orthopedic outpatient clinic received the app TheraAssist for the usage in clinical practice. The data collection was structured in three sessions within three months as single and group interviews, respectively. At the end of each session followed a semi-structured interview. The physiotherapists were asked about their clinical patient records, advantages and disadvantages of the electronic health records using the app TheraAssist. In particular, we focused on the usability and the implementation in clinical routine, usage of assessments, process of clinical decision-making, reporting and communication with other healthcare providers and patients. All data were analyzed using content analysis (Mayring).
Results: Overall, there are advantages and barriers in using electronic patient documentation. Standardized assessments can easily be applied allowing the therapist to increase an adequate number of outcome measures. In addition, the therapists are supported in their clinical decision-making. They have direct and immediate access to relevant and accurate data. The simple and efficient documentation, as well as the fast generation of a health report was highly appreciated. Moreover, the motivation of patients could be increased due to the integration of digital media and the implementation and presentation of outcome measures. However, barriers of electronic health record systems like an increased time effort at the beginning of the project and missing flexibility in the predefined physiotherapeutic process were reported, too.
Conclusion(s): The most important benefit of an electronic healthcare record is the enhanced accuracy and extended reporting. The app enables a simplified usage of assessments, a generic documentation and an efficient and immediate access of healthcare reports. Furthermore, the build-in decision support system improves the therapy planning. In addition, the exchangeability and improved communication with other healthcare providers are fundamental advantages of the developed app TheraAssist. In order to further increase user-friendliness and time saving the presentation of the contents within the app will be modified in near future.
Implications: An implementation of an electronic patient documentation in physiotherapy allows improving the usage of standardized assessments, the unification and generalization of documentation resulting in an enhanced communication between and among different healthcare professionals.
Funding acknowledgements: The development process of the mobile application software was funded by optadata GmbH.
Topic: Professional practice: other
Ethics approval: This research has been conducted ethically according to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
