School of Economics and Finance, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou 362021, China.
School of Computing, Neusoft Institute of Guangdong, Foshan 528225, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Feb 17;17(4):1282. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17041282.
This pilot study investigated factors influencing the application of connected health (CH) in Taiwanese remote areas. These factors cover issues of cost, infrastructure, technology, business sustainability, business model, collaboration, and communication. It aimed to explore the significance and to assess the feasibility of researching CH in Taiwan. A qualitative exploratory study was conducted by interviewing relevant stakeholders ( = 18). The majority were healthcare providers as most of them are the CH end users. Their feedback was essential in reflecting the effectiveness of CH products and services. Therefore, understanding their views is significant in the design of a successful and user-friendly interactive system. A theoretical framework on the introduction of innovations in healthcare was employed to guide data collection and thematic analysis. Additionally, stakeholders proposed strategies for enhancing the implementation of CH in remote areas. This pilot study also contributed to identifying future directions and information for conducting the multi-stage interviews for collecting the data more effectively. Although the results reveal that the study of CH is meaningful, there is an issue of business sustainability which is obscured by some barriers that need to be addressed. These barriers will be further investigated in the first-stage interview and second-stage interview in future research. The research findings also suggest that strategies and sustainability for CH implementation should be included from the planning phase to benefit all the stakeholders in the CH ecosystem.
本初步研究旨在探讨影响台湾偏远地区应用连网健康（connected health，CH）的因素。这些因素涵盖成本、基础设施、技术、商业可持续性、商业模式、合作和沟通等问题。旨在探讨在台湾研究 CH 的意义和评估其可行性。研究采用定性探索性研究方法，对相关利益相关者（=18 人）进行了访谈。他们大多数是医疗保健提供者，因为他们大多是 CH 的最终用户。他们的反馈对于反映 CH 产品和服务的有效性至关重要。因此，了解他们的观点对于设计成功且用户友好的交互系统具有重要意义。采用医疗保健创新引入的理论框架来指导数据收集和主题分析。此外，利益相关者还提出了加强远程地区 CH 实施的策略。本初步研究还为未来的多阶段访谈提供了方向和信息，以更有效地收集数据。尽管研究结果表明，对 CH 的研究具有重要意义，但商业可持续性问题因需要解决的一些障碍而变得模糊不清。这些障碍将在未来的研究中，通过第一阶段访谈和第二阶段访谈进一步探讨。研究结果还表明，应在规划阶段纳入 CH 实施的策略和可持续性，以使 CH 生态系统中的所有利益相关者受益。
