Tools and Technologies for Patients and Caregivers Engagement: A Qualitative Analysis of Health Professionals’ Attitudes and Day-to-Day Practice

As patient engagement cannot be achieved without health professionals co-operation and agreement, attention to the clinicians’ views and attitudes about patient engagement is essential in order to deepen potential enablers and barriers for its implementation. This qualitative study aimed to identify health professionals’ attitudes towards patient engagement and the perceived hindrances and facilitators to the implementation of the patient engagement strategies in their routine practice with a particular focus of health information technologies for patient engagement. It identifies the dimensions underlying patient engagement realization, namely clinicians’ “Meanings and attitudes towards patient engagement”, “practical experience of patient engagement”, and “being a health professional in the era of patient engagement”, as well as highlights the fashion in which these dimensions operate will either activate or inhibit patient engagement innovation. Finally, the study highlighted the great potential of health technologies to support patient engagement if they are enablers of the patient-clinician relationship and not replace it.