Digital Home Monitoring-Responsibilities and Task Distribution: A Qualitative Study of Health Professionals in...

The increasing demand for healthcare services and personnel necessitates new ways of organising care delivery. Digital home monitoring, which enables remote communication and follow-up between healthcare professionals and patients through digital tools, is one such approach. Although these solutions are being implemented in hospital contexts, there is limited knowledge about how healthcare professionals experience digital home monitoring in their everyday practice. This study therefore explores healthcare professionals' experiences of digital home monitoring in hospital settings and examines its implications for responsibilities and task distribution. The socio-technical model Leavitt's Diamond served as the theoretical perspective in this study.

Semi-structured interviews with six healthcare professionals from three Norwegian hospitals. Data was analysed using inductive systematic text condensation by Malterud. The COREQ checklist was used.

Three categories emerged from the material: the patient as an active participant; healthcare professionals' adaptation to technological innovation, and the relationship between healthcare professionals and patients. The findings indicate digital home monitoring as resource-efficient, enabling closer patient follow-up and contributing to preventive care. The participants highlighted the importance of sustaining trust-based relationships with the patients, which can enhance the quality of patient follow-up.

The study suggests that the transition to digital home monitoring is closely linked to how technological changes influence professional roles, competencies and the organisation of tasks, reflecting the interdependence between technology, tasks, structure and actors described in Leavitt's Diamond. Ensuring adequate training, organisational support and resources may facilitate smoother integration of digital solutions and improved outcomes for both patients and healthcare professionals. Future research should focus on the experiences of healthcare professionals with digital home monitoring in hospital settings, emphasising how these digital tools influence clinical workflows, patient engagement and the broader organisational context in healthcare.