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Primary Care Physician's Attitude Towards the GERMAN e-Health Card Project—Determinants and Implications

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Abstract

In Germany e-health cards will be distributed nationwide to over 80 million patients. Given the impending mandatory introduction of the e-health technology, the objective of this study was to examine the determinants of primary care physicians' acceptance of the technological innovation. The study was conducted prior to the introduction of the e-health cards. A questionnaire survey was carried out addressing primary care physicians from different fields. The reduction of medication error rates and the improvement of communication between medical caregivers are central aspects of the perceived usefulness. Primary care physicians rate their involvement in the process of the development of the technology and their own IT expertise concerning the technological innovation as rather low. User involvement and IT expertise can explain 46 % of the variance of perceived usefulness of the e-health card. User involvement plays a crucial role in the adoption of the German e-health card. Primary care physician's perspective should be represented in the process of developing and designing the technology.

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Acknowledgments

The study is financed by the Medical Association of North Rhine, Germany. The authors wish to thank Viktor Krön and Robert Schäfer under whose initiative and guidance the study has been initiated and completed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Health Services Research Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Nicole Ernstmann, Oliver Ommen, Melanie Neumann & Antje Hammer

  2. Department of Palliative Medicine, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Raymond Voltz

  3. Center for Health Services Research Cologne; Division of Medical Sociology of the Institute and Policnic for Occupational and Social Medicine, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Holger Pfaff

Authors
  1. Nicole Ernstmann
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  2. Oliver Ommen
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  3. Melanie Neumann
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  4. Antje Hammer
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  5. Raymond Voltz
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  6. Holger Pfaff
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Correspondence to Nicole Ernstmann.

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Ernstmann, N., Ommen, O., Neumann, M. et al. Primary Care Physician's Attitude Towards the GERMAN e-Health Card Project—Determinants and Implications. J Med Syst 33, 181–188 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-008-9178-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-008-9178-0

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