Cultural considerations in using mobile health in clinical care with military and veteran populations

Traditional cultural models typically address factors like ethnicity, language, and race as important concerns pertaining to treatment efficacy, but over the years, professionals have expanded the focus to include gender, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, and other aspects of identity and experience, including military cultural issues. As the integration of mobile health increases in clinical care, another important cultural factor that can impact care is technological culture. Differences in perception of technological competence by patient and provider can impact the provider's ability to effectively connect with the patient and fully leverage tools to support evidence-based treatment. In this article, we describe provider- and patient-level cultural issues in the provision of clinical care in the military and veteran populations and how the development of cultural competency in technological culture can improve patient care. We apply traditional models in the development of cultural competency to technological culture as well as provide recommendations for providers in Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs health care systems that may be relevant to outside clinicians as well. Key factors are addressed when considering the cultural issues involved in the clinical integration of mobile health in the military and veteran populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).