ehealth: The implications of interventions for clinical facilitation


“In an effort to better understand what design or user-friendly features make some e-health interventions more effective than others, researchers in theUnited Kingdom recently conducted a review of existing articles with effective e-health interventions” (iMedicalApps).

The results indicated  a selection of four interactive design features which affected the success of e-health interventions. They were:

  1. Social context and support
  2. Contacts with intervention
  3. Tailoring
  4. Self-management

The findings have implications that are broader than interventions that focus on consumers. As these features of mhealth or ehealth become more widely used to improve health outcomes, the role of professional experience facilitator, clinical educator, clinical facilitator, preceptor or mentor will also need to adapt to meet the needs of the target groups.  These groups may be undergraduate students or staff who will require assistance to navigate their way with the patient or client, or for them. It is the role of  facilitators to ‘educate first and use technology second’, but in the future the distinction may become blurred. A method to become familiar with using emerging technology is to try it out and see what works.  Often there are similarities between platforms that become standardised over time. A method that is currently being trialed within the SNM is the use of Twitter (see the widget on the RHS of this site) to develop a community of practice (CoP)of clinical facilitators.  If you are not familiar with Twitter… join. then you can become part of the  PEPCommunity and share information and resources about clinical facilitation. If you do decide to join, please complete the survey regarding your digital technology use.  It is anonymous and will take less than 5 minutes to complete. It will provide useful information to assist with the development of the network of clinical facilitators. For those of you who are already part of the CoP, enlist your colleagues as the more who try it out and learn to use, there is a chance that over time our patients will benefit from our sharing or information or by being shown how to use the technology.

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