Effective digital healthcare depends on trust

Digital tools such as telehealth, remote monitoring and mobile health apps are key to transforming healthcare but trust in these new ways to provide care remains a stumbling block, University of Queensland researchers have found.

In a comprehensive review, Dr Soraia de Camargo Catapan and Dr Jaimon Kelly from UQ’s Centre for Online Health analysed 49 studies, published over 13 years, to identify factors influencing consumer and healthcare professionals’ trust in digital healthcare.

“If people don’t trust digital healthcare, they won’t use it,’’ Dr Catapan said.

“Trust is inherently difficult to define and measure but it is key to making digital health tools more effective and widely used.

“Building trust can help more people use these health technologies in the long run, leading to better outcomes and making digital healthcare more sustainable.’’

Examples of digital healthcare include electronic health records, wearable devices, telehealth, mobile health, and medical artificial intelligence.

The review examined studies published between 2010 and 2023, with 40 percent of the studies conducted in China or the United States.

It found trust in digital healthcare could be influenced by a person’s digital literacy, education levels, prior experiences with digital health, income, privacy concerns and perceived risks.

The quality of digital healthcare, data accuracy, and the degree of human interaction in automated interventions also played a part in building trust.

Dr Kelly said trust mattered because it directly impacted consumer behaviour.

“The Australian Digital Health Blueprint and Action Plan 2023-2033 describes the role of digital health capabilities in fortifying the healthcare system, with one of its focal areas being the reinforcement of trust,’’ Dr Kelly said.

“Our review found that trust positively correlates with consumers' intention to use, adopt, and find digital health technologies useful.

“This research is an important step toward understanding and measuring trust in digital healthcare.

“Developing a comprehensive framework for trust, in turn, enhances the adoption of digital health technologies, supports better health outcomes, and strengthens the long-term sustainability of digital healthcare solutions.’’

The review also found that cultural and geographical differences, such as in China where digital privacy is more regulated, needed to be considered because perceptions of trust could differ significantly from those in Western countries.

The research is published in npj Digital Medicine

Media contact

UQ Communications
communications@uq.edu.au

+61 429 056 139