Data as symptom: Doctors' responses to patient-provided data in general practice.

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• General Practice
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Growing patient generation of health data via wearables and online tools.
• Increasing policy focus on integrating patient-generated data into healthcare.
• Potential disconnect between policy goals and general practitioners' (GPs) daily workflows.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how Danish GPs interpret and utilize patient-generated health data.
• To explore the gap between policy ambitions and the practical realities of GP data handling.
• To understand the evidential value GPs ascribe to various forms of patient data.

Main Methods:

• Semi-structured interviews with 23 Danish general practitioners.
• Analysis of GP reflections on patient-provided data types (wearables, symptom checkers, patient portals, lab results).
• Juxtaposition of GP practices with existing policy frameworks for digital health data.

Main Results:

• GPs infrequently encounter patient-generated data, primarily from wearables and symptom checkers.
• Data from GPs' own systems (Patient Reported Outcome, lab results) also require significant interpretation.
• GPs treat patient-provided data as subjective symptoms, not objective measurements, needing recontextualization for evidential value.

Conclusions:

• Patient-generated data requires substantial "recontextualization work" by GPs before being accepted as evidence.
• GPs' practical approach to patient data diverges from policy frameworks emphasizing objective measurements.
• GPs should be integral to policy and development discussions on integrating patient-generated data into healthcare infrastructures.