Segmenting Clinicians' Usage Patterns of a Digital Health Tool in Resource-Limited Settings: Clickstream Data...

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Health Informatics
• Global Health

Background:

• Evidence-based digital health tools enhance clinician care by providing access to current medical literature.
• Understanding user behavior in low-resource settings is crucial for promoting digital health tool adoption.
• A program facilitates free UpToDate subscriptions for clinicians in low-resource areas globally.

Purpose of the Study:

• To segment clinicians based on their UpToDate usage patterns.
• To describe the demographics of identified user segments.
• To correlate user segments with self-reported professional climate measures.

Main Methods:

• Collected 12 months of clickstream data and survey responses from 1681 clinicians across 75 countries.
• Analyzed session frequency, duration, activity type, and usage intensity.
• Defined five behavioral segments: short-term/long-term and light/heavy users, plus never-users.

Main Results:

• Five distinct user segments were identified, with 54% of users active for 48+ weeks.
• Usage varied by age, medical specialty, and geographic region, with younger clinicians and non-emergency specialists showing higher engagement.
• Clinicians perceiving a positive professional climate towards digital tools were more likely to be long-term users.

Conclusions:

• Behavioral segmentation can guide digital health tool implementation and user support strategies.
• Combining clickstream, demographic, and survey data offers insights for global health initiatives.
• Further research will explore drivers of digital health tool utilization.