Internet Services for Communicating With the General Practice: Barely Noticed and Used by Patients

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• eHealth Adoption
• Primary Care Technology

Background:

• The Netherlands leads Europe in eHealth adoption within general practices.
• Patient communication via Internet services is increasingly offered by general practitioners.
• Understanding patient use and intention is crucial for eHealth promotion.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate current use and intention to use Internet services for patient-general practice communication.
• Identify factors influencing patient intention to adopt these eHealth services.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study of 546 Dutch Health Care Consumer Panel members (age >18).
• Questionnaire assessed use, desire to use, and perceived availability of services like online appointments, queries, reminders, refills, medical data access, and video consultations.
• Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) constructs (effort expectancy, performance expectancy, trust, attitude, facilitating conditions, social influence) were evaluated for key services.

Main Results:

• Actual use of eHealth services ranged from 0% (video consultation) to 10.4% (prescription refills).
• Intention to use services varied from 14.7% (video consultation) to 48.7% (medical data access).
• Approximately half of participants were unaware of service availability; age, education, and Internet usage influenced intention.

Conclusions:

• Internet-based communication with general practices is underutilized in the Dutch population.
• While many patients intend to use eHealth services, willingness to adopt varies.
• Low awareness of service availability and functionality is a significant barrier to eHealth uptake.