Table 1.
Questionnaire
| Characteristics | ||
|---|---|---|
| Age (years) | ||
| 20–30 | ||
| 31–40 | ||
| 41–50 | ||
| >50 | ||
| Gender | ||
| Male | ||
| Female | ||
| Educational level | ||
| Diploma | ||
| Bachelor | ||
| Master | ||
| Doctorate | ||
| Job title | ||
| Senior clinician | ||
| Health informatics specialist | ||
| IT specialist | ||
| Other | ||
| Years of experience | ||
| 1–5 | ||
| 6–10 | ||
| 11–15 | ||
| 16–20 | ||
| >20 | ||
| Questions | Yes | No |
| Do you agree on the following barriers for digital mHealth in the Kingdom? | ||
| 1. mHealth expertise and human shortage | ||
| 2. Funding and infrastructure investments | ||
| 3. Legal, privacy standardization and regulatory barriers | ||
| 4. Health care organizational and bureaucracy barriers | ||
| Do you agree on the following causes for these barriers? | ||
| • mHealth expertise and human shortage (eg, diabetes care and management) | ||
| 1. Lack of digital health practitioners (eg, diabetes nurse and training opportunities) | ||
| 2. Lack of awareness on the importance of mHealth and impact on diabetes management | ||
| 3. Lack of differentiation and care benefits between eHealth and mHealth applications (eg, in the diabetes care area) | ||
| • Funding and infrastructure investments | ||
| 1. High costs and investment required for the successful implementation of large-scale digital health programs | ||
| 2. Absence of large-scale evidence-based clinical trials on digital health that warrant such investments (eg, in diabetes) | ||
| 3. Adapting the current information and computing infrastructure toward digital health programs | ||
| • Legal, privacy standardization and regulatory barriers | ||
| 1. Lack interoperability standards | ||
| 2. Lack of local expertise in these areas | ||
| 3. Lack of smart mHealth applications tailored for local needs and cultural norms | ||
| 4. Absence of national mHealth plan and strategy | ||
| 5. Divergence of opinions and outcomes between the private and public health care sectors on digital health (eg, diabetes care) | ||
| 6. Lack of mHealth ethics requirements | ||
| 7. Privacy, security, and confidentiality concerns | ||
| • Health care organizational and bureaucracy barriers | ||
| 1. Lack of understanding of the importance of mHealth for health care delivery services by decision-makers | ||
| 2. The perception of added workload and efficiency issues by health care providers (eg, diabetes) | ||
| 3. Lack of mHealth leadership on organizational levels (eg, CIO or their equivalent) | ||
| 4. Lack of mHealth initiatives and implementation plans in both private and public health care sectors | ||
| Do you agree on the following solutions for each barrier within each category? | ||
| • mHealth expertise and human shortage | ||
| 1. Provide better educational training in digital and mHealth areas of importance (eg, digital diabetes courses for nurses and specialist) | ||
| 2. Better public awareness programs on the benefits of mHealth | ||
| • Funding and investment | ||
| 1. Allocation for more funding and strategic plans for digital diabetes | ||
| • Legal, privacy standardization and regulatory barriers | ||
| 1. Adoption of interoperability strategy for digital diabetes in the Kingdom | ||
| 2. Better resource allocation | ||
| 3. National mHealth plan | ||
| 4. Development of ethical standards for mHealth | ||
| • Health care organizational and bureaucracy barriers | ||
| 1. Training and professional course | ||
| 2. Better time allocation and resources | ||
| 3. Creation of mHealth leaders | ||
| Any barriers solutions? |
Abbreviations: CIO, Chief Information Officer; IT, information technology; mHealth, mobile health.