Centering Digital Health Equity During Technology Innovation: Protocol for a Comprehensive Scoping Review of Evidence-Based Tools and Approaches.

BACKGROUND: In the rush to develop health technologies for the COVID-19 pandemic, the unintended consequence of digital health inequity or the inability of priority communities to access, use, and receive equal benefits from digital health technologies was not well examined. OBJECTIVE: This scoping review will examine tools and approaches that can be used during digital technology innovation to improve equitable inclusion of priority communities in the development of digital health technologies. The results from this study will provide actionable insights for professionals in health care, health informatics, digital health, and technology development to proactively center equity during innovation. METHODS: Based on the Arksey and O'Malley framework, this scoping review will consider priority communities' equitable involvement in digital technology innovation. Bibliographic databases in health, medicine, computing, and information sciences will be searched. Retrieved citations will be double screened against the inclusion and exclusion criteria using Covidence (Veritas Health Innovation). Data will be charted using a tailored extraction tool and mapped to a digital health innovation pathway defined by the Centre for eHealth Research roadmap for eHealth technologies. An accompanying narrative synthesis will describe the outcomes in relation to the review's objectives. RESULTS: This scoping review is currently in progress. The search of databases and other sources returned a total of 4868 records. After the initial screening of titles and abstracts, 426 studies are undergoing dual full-text review. We are aiming to complete the full-text review stage by May 30, 2024, data extraction in October 2024, and subsequent synthesis in December 2024. Funding was received on October 1, 2023, from the Centre for Health Equity Incubator Grant Scheme, University of Melbourne, Australia. CONCLUSIONS: This paper will identify and recommend a series of validated tools and approaches that can be used by health care stakeholders and IT developers to produce equitable digital health technology across the Centre for eHealth Research roadmap. Identified evidence gaps, possible implications, and further research will be discussed. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/53855.

A Hybrid Physical-Digital Simulation Laboratory to Expedite Context-Aware Design and Usability Testing in Digital Health.

Fit within existing physical and digitalised workflows is a critical aspect of digital health software usability. Early, iterative exploration of contextual usability issues is complicated by barriers of access to healthcare settings. The Validitron SimLab is a new facility for digital health prototyping that augments immersive, realistic physical environments with a digital sandbox allowing new and existing software to be easily set up and tested in the physical space.

Adapting an Environmental Scan for 'Insights Reporting': Learnings from an Online Brain Cancer Peer Support Platform.

When developing a digital health solution, product owners, healthcare professionals, researchers, IT teams, and consumers require timely, accurate contextual information to inform solution development. Insights Reporting can rapidly draw together information from literature, end users and existing technology to inform the development process. This was the case when creating an online brain cancer peer support platform where solution development was conducted in parallel with contextual information synthesis. This paper discusses the novel adaptation of an environmental scan methodology using codesign and multiple layers of qualitative rigor, to create Insights Reporting. This seven-step process can be completed in two months and results in salient points of knowledge that can rapidly inform the design of a solution, creating a shared understanding of a digital health phenomenon. Project members noted that Insights Reporting surfaces previously inaccessible knowledge, catalyzes decision-making and allows all stakeholders to influence the report agenda, affirming principles of digital health equity.

Making sense of chronic disease using Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT): An existential view of illness.

OBJECTIVE: This article explores chronic disease patients' personal symbolic meanings of their diseases, as emergent from their experience of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) therapy. The present study is part of a larger study that explored chronic disease patients' and EFT practitioners' experiences of using EFT to support chronic disease healthcare. DESIGN: Eight chronic disease patients who had received EFT were interviewed for this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted face to face, or via telephone, or the online videoconferencing platform, Zoom. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and data was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis methodology. RESULTS: Three themes emerged, namely 'illness as an embodiment of unresolved emotional issues', 'illness as body's call for time-out and attention', and 'illness as a boundary from other people'. CONCLUSION: EFT offers promise as a suitable therapeutic approach to help chronic disease patients make sense of their life stories and lived experiences, and consequently, symbolic meanings of diseases. The exploration of illness symbology and meaning-making may offer therapeutic value to patients, from both an existential and a health behaviors perspective.

Emotional freedom techniques (EFT) as a practice for supporting chronic disease healthcare: a practitioners' perspective.

PURPOSE: The objective of the present study was to explore Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) practitioners' experiences of using EFT to support chronic disease patients. This was part of a larger study exploring chronic disease patients' and EFT practitioners' experiences of using EFT to support chronic disease healthcare. METHODS: A qualitative approach was deemed suitable for this study. Eight practitioners were interviewed using semi-structured interviews via telephone or Zoom (an online video-conferencing platform). Interviews were transcribed verbatim and data was analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis methodology. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: This article presents two super-ordinate themes which explore application of EFT for addressing emotional issues faced by chronic disease patients, and for management of physical symptoms, respectively. Chronic disease patients may benefit from a holistic biopsychosocial, patient-centered healthcare approach. EFT offers potential as a technique that may be used by health practitioners to support the psychosocial aspect of chronic disease healthcare. Implications for Rehabilitation Rehabilitation professionals should incorporate suitable psychological interventions (e.g., EFT) to improve coping and acceptance in physical chronic disease patients and alleviate their fears about the future. Rehabilitation professionals are also recommended to address in chronic disease patients, long-standing or unresolved emotional issues, including past traumas from early life, using EFT or another suitable intervention. Rehabilitation professionals should help improve patients' emotional states using EFT to enhance physical symptom management.