Evaluating remote healthcare practices: Experiences and recommendations of healthcare professionals on smart applications

With the digitalization of objects and spaces, healthcare services are being reshaped globally, creating many potential applications. This study aimed to determine the application potential of remote healthcare services (RHS) in a hospital by considering the experiences, interests, and suggestions of health professionals, and examples of useful applications that can be used, developed, or invented for healthcare systems.

A semi-structured, face-to-face interview survey was conducted with 176 healthcare professionals working at Bozok University.

Branches with the highest practice experience were internal medicine, cardiac, pediatric, infection, and orthopedics. Experienced participants rated the usability of "Consultation," "Support," and "Monitoring" applications higher than other apps, and indicated that they would prefer to use them for themselves (η²≤0.12). Requirements adequacy was lower for older adults, internal/surgical branches, and physicians than for other groups (η² ≥ 0.05). Application categories showed a significant relationship (0.4 ≤ r ≤ 0.8, p < 0.05). Several variables significantly explained the models (p < 0.001): application-usability (64%), user-demand (64%), and requirements-adequacy (25%). Professionals' demand (r = 0.83) was more strongly correlated to usability than patient demand (r = 0.63). Health professionals (N = 105) from 17 branches provided 57 available, 51 developable, and 19 innovative application recommendations. These were coded according to application type, critical features, presence, integration status, and usefulness.

RHS' application potential in a hospital was revealed considering demographic factors and application categories based on health professionals' experiences, practical interests, and suggestions, with a strong, comprehensive, and up-to-date methodology. The findings have the potential for international application and can contribute to implementing useful and developing original applications.