Physician's acceptance of data from patient self-monitoring devices

Abstract

Due to the wide-scale adoption by the market and consumers of healthcare goods that track fitness, sleep, nutrition, and basic metabolic parameters through ubiquitous devices or mobile apps, it is vital to understand physicians’ attitudes towards consumer healthcare devices. No study had previously examined constructs related to technology acceptance and how they impacted behavioral intention for ubiquitous devices that produce SMD. A quantitative, non-experimental study was conducted to examine SMD acceptance, intent to use, and other factors important to physicians regarding SMD from ubiquitous devices. The researcher randomized the American Medical Association (AMA) membership list and sent out 5,000 invitations to physicians for participation. The final sample included 259 subjects, which consisted of 75.2% (N=194) male and 24.8% (N=64) female participants. The results from statistical analysis of the data gathered through survey methodology showed that the UTAUT2 constructs of performance expectancy, hedonic motivation, and price value were positively associated with the behavioral intention of SMD by physicians, while effort expectancy and social influence were not. Further, social influence was associated with use, while performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and hedonistic motivation were not. Major positive implications of the findings include contribution to the body of literature in the IT-healthcare arena regarding factors the influence technology acceptance and potential increase in the adoption of SMD among patients. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research are discussed.