Development and early-stage validation of a questionnaire measuring patient acceptance of electronic patient reported outcome measures.

Electronic patient-reported outcome measures (e-PROMs) have been introduced to improve the collection of patient feedback and to facilitate data linkage with research databases. However, before implementing e-PROMs, it is important to understand patient’s feelings about and acceptance of these technologies. Until today, there has been no adequate questionnaire to understand patient acceptance of e-PROMs. So, this study aimed to study patient acceptance of e-PROMs through developing and validating a new questionnaire based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and additional factors including computer anxiety and patient characteristic factors. Not only did this study apply a quantitative method to understand the factors behind patient acceptance, the development and the psychometric testing of the new questionnaire was conducted using a variety of methodological approaches. This includes: (1) developing the initial version of the questionnaire based on the available literature, (2) an expert panel review (n=5) and cognitive interviews (n=10) to measure face and content validity, and (3) conducting field-testing (n=231) to measure construct validity and internal consistency reliability. The field-testing included testing the conceptual model with cancer survivors at an outpatient oncology clinic in Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Based on these study findings, the developed questionnaire shows good validity and reliability. Moreover, the conceptual model results show that patient attitudes (a TPB construct), computer anxiety and gender were significantly (P<0.05) associated with behavioural intention to use e-PROMs. The most influential factor is patients’ attitude to computers, followed by computer anxiety then male gender. Overall, these model constructs explained around 87% of the variance in acceptance. The findings of this study strongly suggest that clinicians need to encourage their male patients to use e-PROMs and help them to reduce their computer anxiety

The role of social media in the training and continuing education of healthcare professionals in Eastern Saudi Arabia

Background: Continuing education is essential for healthcare professionals to update their theoretical and practical knowledge about the advances of the medical profession throughout their professional lives. No study has been conducted in Saudi Arabia on this topic. Purpose: The objective of this study was to assess the role of social media in the training and continuing education of healthcare professionals in Eastern Saudi Arabia. Methodology: A total of 483 healthcare professionals were randomly selected and administered with a survey through an online application distributed using a link via email, WhatsApp, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The response rate was 72%. Results: 53% of the participants attended training and continuing education programs through social media in Eastern Saudi Arabia. YouTube (23%) was the most used social network for this purpose. The respondents considered that social media platforms were “very helpful” to improve their knowledge (52%), creativity (45%), clinical skills (42%), critical thinking (50%), problem-solving skills (52%), and patient outcomes (44%). Conclusion: The results suggested that it is necessary to develop adequate strategies for healthcare professionals to increase the use of training and continuing education programs through social networks in Saudi Arabia. In general, the participants considered that social networks were beneficial tools to improve their theoretical and practical knowledge and expand their professional training

Evaluation of the Patient Experience with the Mawid App during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Al Hassa, Saudi Arabia

(1) Introduction: The objective of this study was to evaluate the patient experience with the Mawid application during the COVID-19 pandemic in Al Hassa, Saudi Arabia. (2) Methodology: A quantitative cross-sectional survey was designed to evaluate the patient experience with the Mawid app during the COVID-19 pandemic in Al Hassa, Saudi Arabia. A total of 146 respondents completed the questionnaire. (3) Results: More than half of the participants (65.8%) opined that application was easy to use. Furthermore, 65.1% of the participants considered it to be very easy and easy to search for the required information; and 63.7% of the respondents reflected that it was easy to book an appointment. There was a statistically significant difference between the ease of searching for the required information (p-value = 0.006); the ease of undoing an unwanted move and gender (p-value = 0.049); the ease of searching for the required information and educational level (p-value = 0.048); the ease of booking an appointment and educational level (p = 0.049); and the ease of searching for the required information and the labor sector of the respondents (p value= 0.049) among the genders. No significant differences were identified among the age groups. (4) Conclusions: Overall, most participants suggested that the Mawid app was easy to use and had a potentially useful set of features to help mitigate and manage the COVID-19 pandemic in Al Hassa, Saudi Arabia

Public awareness and use of health tools provided by the portal of the Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia

Purpose: The objective of this study was to assess the awareness and use of the health tools provided by the portal of the Ministry of Health (MOH) of Saudi Arabia to the Saudi public. Method: ology: A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the awareness and use of the health tools provided by the portal of the MOH to the Saudi public. The questionnaire was distributed to the family, friends, and co-workers through WhatsApp. Snow-ball sampling was used to encourage participants to forward the survey link to their friends and colleagues. A total of 317 people received the questionnaire and 110 respondents completed it. Results: The respondents had used the following health tools; the ideal body weight calculator (10.5%), body mass index calculator (9.9%), calorie calculator (8.0%), calculator to assess depression level (6.1%), pregnancy date calculator (4.3%), visual acuity test (4.3%), calculator to assess the best time to get pregnant (3.7%), asthma control test (2.5%), calculator to assess anxiety level (2.5%), eating disorder test (1.9%), pre-diabetic risk test (1.2%), and the sleep disorder test (1.2%). More than half of the participants (58.2%) were not aware of the health tools that the MOH provides through its website, and 64.5% of the respondents had never used these tools. 55.5% of the participants found that the services provided by the MOH through its portal meet their needs, and 91.8% of them preferred to use mobile applications to access e-services provided by the MOH. 59.1% of the respondents were satisfied and very satisfied with the e-services that the MOH provides through its website. The results indicated that there was no statistically significant association between the awareness and use of health tools and the gender, age, area of residence, educational degree, and marital status of the participants. Conclusion: The results showed that the majority of the respondents are not aware and never had used the health tools provided by the portal of the MOH of Saudi Arabia. Therefore, the findings of this study could provide insight for the government to analyze the different factors that could affect the promotion, awareness, and use of these tools by the Saudi Arabian population