Building Digital Bridges: Exploring the Digitized Collaboration of General Practitioners and Mobile Care in Rural Areas

In the process of digitalization of healthcare, professionals, such as mobile care nurses or general practitioners, are facing both new challenges and opportunities. Digital technologies thereby promise to affect the cooperation of healthcare professionals on various levels, e.g., increasing quality of care, improving interprofessional communication, or optimizing economic aspects of care. Our study examines current issues of healthcare professionals concerning a digital change of care. We conducted qualitative interviews with primary care practitioners and providers of mobile care (nurses and care managers) to understand perceived obstacles in the process of digitalization and to formulate possible implications to encounter those obstacles. Our results suggest that insufficient communication and a lack of mutual trust have to be considered relevant issues. We therefore propose to focus future research on the interchangeability of different communication and documentation systems

Motivating for Healthier Drinking Behavior: Applying the Health Action Process Approach in Virtual Reality

The consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) contributes to several health problems among adults and children. In this paper, we build upon the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA), which has already been successfully used in many health contexts to achieve preventive health behavior. However, research shows that in contexts like healthy dieting, people seem to neglect risks, which is generally an important predictor of intention and indirect behavior. Therefore, we want to use virtual reality (VR) and its beneficial characteristics to manipulate participant\u27s risk awareness by giving them interactive feedback to their choice of beverages. We assume this could shape their intention to consume less SSBs. To test our assumption, we use a one-way between-subject design (feedback design: informational vs. informational with related physical activity) in laboratory study. We suggest positive results of our feedback manipulation to risk awareness and furthermore to the consumption behavior

Restorative effects of virtual reality nature simulations at the workplace. An experimental approach

Understanding information technology (IT) use at work is vital for addressing the ongoing transformation of the labor market. In recent years, personal well-being and employee satisfaction became increasingly acknowledged, leading to an increasing installation of naturalistic elements in today’s offices. However, prior research has not explained how to stimulate such naturalistic elements in a virtual reality, leaving its huge potential for remote work unused. To address this gap, our short paper presents design principles on how to simulate nature using virtual reality during breaks. This study can contribute to stress literature and help office workers identify the working environment they need for restauration. Based on insights from psychology and neuroscience, our experimental approach will be outlined, leading to a discussion of fruitful avenues for future research

Exploring the Role of Cognitive Bias in Technology Acceptance by Physicians

The healthcare domain faces arising challenges. Caused by an ageing society, inequitable access to primary care, and the increasing demand physicians face, the digitization of medical processes emerges as a promising measure. The application of information technologies enables physicians to treat more patients while maintaining quality. Hence, physicians are potentially obliged to implement such technologies and acquire the needed skills to use them. Questions arise on what factors predict their IT acceptance behavior. Literature on technology acceptance broadly looked at technical features and assumed rational behavioral outcomes regarding perceived efforts and benefits of IT use, neglecting psychological aspects such as cognitive biases that inhibit rational decision-making. We propose a mixed-methods study to develop an integrated theoretical model based on the ‘Status Quo Bias Perspective’. In order to provide a holistic view on physicians’ technology acceptance and intentions, we further compare our tested model with established acceptance theories in IS research