Health Professionals' Ethical, Security, and Patient Safety Concerns Using Digital Health Technologies: A Mixed Method Research Study.

Background: Digital Health Technologies (DHTs) offer numerous health benefits but raise ethical and security concerns about patient health data among health professionals due to potential security breaches. This study explores the ethical, patient safety, and security issues concerning healthcare professionals using DHTs in hospitals in Ghana.

Methods: The study used a mixed method design, including a descriptive survey and in-depth interviews with health professionals in 3 tertiary hospitals, between July and September 2022, with thematic content analysis using QSR NVivo 12 software.

Health professionals' perceptions of electronic health records system: a mixed method study in Ghana.

Background: Electronic Health Record systems (EHRs) offer significant benefits and have transformed healthcare in developed countries. However, their implementation and adoption in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) remains low due to challenges and competing interests. Health professionals' perception of EHRs can influence their adoption and continued use.

Healthcare professionals' perception on emergence of security threat using digital health technologies in healthcare delivery.

Background: The advancement of digital health technologies (DHTs) in the healthcare industry has revolutionized healthcare by improving efficiency and accessibility. The shift from paper-based records to electronic health records (EHRs) as a result of modern technologies introduced various security threats, endangering patient data privacy and system reliability. This study explores intricate security threats among healthcare professionals affecting DHT utilization.

Perceived impact of digital health technology on health professionals and their work: A qualitative study in Southern Ghana.

Background: Digital health technology (DHT) has become an essential part of an effective and efficient healthcare information system. Although DHT promises great potential it does not always meet the expectation of users. Often, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), the implemented DHT does not function as intended and impacts negatively on health professionals and their work.

Telehealth services for global emergencies: implications for COVID-19: a scoping review based on current evidence.

Introduction: The availability of low-cost computing and digital telecommunication in the 1980s made telehealth practicable. Telehealth has the capacity to improve healthcare access and outcomes for patients while reducing healthcare costs across a wide range of health conditions and situations.

Objective: This study compares the adoption, advantages, and challenges of telehealth services between high-income (HICs) and low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health professional's readiness and factors associated with telemedicine implementation and use in selected health facilities in Ghana.

Background: Telemedicine, which is the practice of medicine using technology to deliver health care remotely, has a low adoption rate in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, the advent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has forced healthcare systems in these settings to begin implementing telemedicine programs. It is unknown how prepared health professionals and the healthcare system are to adopt this technology.

Electronic health records post-implementation challenges in selected hospitals: A qualitative study in the Central Region of southern Ghana.

Background: Electronic health records (EHRs) are useful tools in healthcare settings but implementation in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) face challenges.

Objective: To explore post-implementation challenges affecting the deployment of EHRs and their use in selected health facilities in Ghana.

Method: Using a qualitative research approach, 21 in-depth interviews were conducted with health workers in two hospitals in the study area in Ghana, in February and June 2020.

Healthcare Providers' Intention to Use Technology to Attend to Clients in Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, Ghana.

Background: Patient records' relevance is associated with a variety of needs and objectives. Substantiating the health of patients perpetually and allowing professionals in the medical field to assess both signs and symptoms that fall in a relatively wider temporal point of view and contributions that lead to enhanced diagnoses and treatment are all quintessential of patient records. The advancement of information technology systems has led to the anticipation that development will be put into digitization and electronic means of storing patient records in order to grease their handling.

Challenges and experiences in linking community level reported out-of-pocket health expenditures to health provider recorded health expenditures: Experience from the iHOPE project in Northern Ghana.

Out of pocket health payment (OOPs) has been identified by the System of Health Accounts (SHA) as the largest source of health care financing in most low and middle-income countries. This means that most low and middle-income countries will rely on user fees and co-payments to generate revenue, rationalize the use of services, contain health systems costs or improve health system efficiency and service quality. However, the accurate measurement of OOPs has been challenged by several limitations which are attributed to both sampling and non-sampling errors when OOPs are estimated from household surveys, the primary source of information in LICs and LMICs.

Effect of specificity of health expenditure questions in the measurement of out-of-pocket health expenditure: evidence from field experimental study in Ghana.

Background: The effect of number of health items on out-of-pockets (OOPs) has been identified as a source of bias in measuring OOPs. Evidence comes mostly from cross-sectional comparison of different survey instruments to collect data on OOPs. Very few studies have attempted to validate these questionnaires, or distinguish bias arising from the comprehensiveness of the OOPs list versus specificity of OOPs questions.