Digital health at fifteen : more human (more needed)

• Main Authors: Huckvale, Kit, Majeed, Azeem, Car, Josip, Wang, Jason C.
• Other Authors: Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Medicine; Digital Health; EHealth
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/105963; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/48826
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

There is growing appreciation that the success of digital health – whether digital tools, digital interventions or technology-based change strategies – is linked to the extent to which human factors are considered throughout design, development and implementation. A shift in focus to individuals as users and consumers of digital health highlights the capacity of the field to respond to secular developments, such as the adoption of person-centred care and consumer health technologies. We argue that this project is not only incomplete, but is fundamentally ‘uncompletable’ in the face of a highly dynamic landscape of both technological and human challenges. These challenges include the effects of consumerist, technology-supported care on care delivery, the rapid growth of digital users in low-income and middle-income countries and the impacts of machine learning. Digital health research will create most value by retaining a clear focus on the role of human factors in maximising health benefit, by helping health systems to anticipate and understand the person-centred effects of technology changes and by advocating strongly for the autonomy, rights and safety of consumers.