Conference talk during the IEEE EMBC'16 conference about experiences of a GP in the daily practice about Digital Health Literacy and the real needs. Other authors are M. Traver, Ignacio Basagioti, C. Fernandez-Llatas, and A. Martinez-Millana

1. Innovaciones Tecnológicas para la Salud y el Bienestar
19th August 2016
M. Traver, I, Basagoti, A. Martinez‐Millana,
C. Fernández Llatas, V. Traver
Experiences of a General Practitioner
in the daily practice about Digital
Health Literacy. The real needs.

2. Actual health outcomes are largely produced by the citizen
behaviors – not by health care procedures (alone)
Actual health outcomes are largely produced by the citizen
behaviors – not by health care procedures (alone)
Health status determinants
Health Care (10%)
Environmental
(5%)Behavioral
(40%)
Social
(15%)
Genetic
(30%)
McGinnis et al., Health Affairs 21(2), 2002
@ Saranummi

3. The European Health Literacy Survey showed
that 47% of citizens have a poor or problematic
level of Health Literacy

4. What are our tools NOT good at?
Flickr – Clyde Bentley
What questions other
than “does it work”
should we ask?
HEALTH TOOLS

5. How do the GPs select the most useful tools to
handle the challenge of patient’s digital health
literacy?

6. Flickr – Mathieu
Struck
It’s key to provide tools and skills for the GPs to
promote Digital Health Literacy among patients

7. Information
Quality
RelevantAppropiate
We need to hear the voices of the main interface
with the PATIENT… THE GPs

8. Health literacy
Health literacy is linked to literacy and
entails people’s knowledge, motivation and
competencies
to access, understand, appraise, and apply health
information
in order to make judgments and take decisions in
everyday life concerning
healthcare, disease prevention and health
promotion
TO MAINTAIN OR IMPROVE QUALITY OF LIFE
during the life course

9. Health literacy
Adding digital to the health literacy has pros and cons
PROS CONS
Need of digital literacy
Price
Device dependence
Infoxication
Doubts about reliability
Scalability (time, audience,
coverage, impact)
Content reuse
Anywhere, any moment from any
device
Personalisation

10. Health literacy
A. Obtaining. Search
phase
GOOGLE SEARCH CRITERIA ARE NOT VALID FOR
HEALTH RELATED ISSUES
Role of the GP
How?
Content and site prescriber

11. Health literacy
B. Understanding.
Comprehension phase
Making personal
FACTORS
Personal Educational Social
Role of the GP
Prescribe tools and apps to help
this personalisation process

12. Health literacy
C. Applying. Adoption
phase.
Difference between
understanding and applying
Creating
healthy
habits
Health
coproducer
Role of the GP
Motivation trainer
Behavioral management skills

13. Moving from needs into action
Know personal (individual level) of HL/DHLKnow personal (individual level) of HL/DHL
Increase the time dedicated to communication and
educational activities
Increase the time dedicated to communication and
educational activities
Have available information quickly and customised for
each patient
Have available information quickly and customised for
each patient
Be able to prescribe health digital tools adapted for each
patient
Be able to prescribe health digital tools adapted for each
patient
Have quick updates on activities, courses and events
tailored to patients’ interests
Have quick updates on activities, courses and events
tailored to patients’ interests
Be able to provide support to patient’s empowerment Be able to provide support to patient’s empowerment

14. Needs (1/6)
Need
• Know personal (individual level) of HL/DHL
Action
• Have standardized, simple user friendly questionnaires
integrated in to medical records
Target
• Adapt profesionals communication skills
• Improve understanding of patient needs
• Improve efficiency on the patient educational activities

15. Needs (2/6)
Need
• Increase the time dedicated to communication and
educational activities
Action
• Integrate these activities in the portfolio of medical services
as any other clinical activity
Target
• Improved communication and educational activities in
quality and quantity of professional to patients with known
impact on adherence, self‐management and prevention

16. Needs (3/6)
Need
• Have available information quickly and customised for each
patient
Action
• Creation of a structured tag‐enriched repository of reliable
links and multiformat documents to cover personalised
information needs from each specific patient
Target
• Provide the requested personalised information to patient
when needed, improving his/her DHL

17. Needs (4/6)
Need
• Be able to prescribe health digital tools adapted for
each patient
Action
• Structured list of links and information about reliable
and secure health tools adapted for each patient
needs
Target
• Promote and facilitate the use of digital tools to
improve the quality of life of patients and / or their
knowledge and management of their disease

18. Needs (5/6)
Need
• Have quick updates on activities, courses and events tailored
to patients’ interests
Action
• With institutional support, list of related activities with
information and links should be available
Target
• Facilitate patient participation in activities that serve to help in
improving their knowledge and skills, as well as enhance the
relationship and community activities with other patients

19. Needs (6/6)
Need
• Be able to provide support to patient’s empowerment
Action
• Empower GPs and train them to solve doubts and
correct errors in the patient's digital health literacy
road
Target
• Get the empowered patient / activist, use the health
professional as a consultant

20. Discussion/Conclusions
To empower patients, we need to
understand the context and empower the
main interface with them, the GPs
An integrated strategy with institutional
suppport and policy makers is needed to
avoid a fragmented user experience
Main benefits are patient health status
improvement, disease prevention and
efficacy in the use of healthcare resources

21. Innovaciones Tecnológicas para la Salud y el Bienestar
19th August 2016
M. Traver, I, Basagoti, A. Martinez‐Millana,
C. Fernández Llatas, V. Traver
Experiences of a General Practitioner
in the daily practice about Digital
Health Literacy. The real needs.
vtraver@itaca.upv.es Twitter & Skype: vtraver
Thanks for your attention