Perspective Chapter: Pre-Acceptability in Digital Health Technology

Respiratory illnesses impose a significant burden on global and Irish healthcare systems. A promising strategy to address this involves implementing remote patient monitoring and telemedicine, enabling patients to receive medical follow-up care from home. Such initiatives can enhance treatment quality, promote better self-management, increase adherence to therapies, reduce healthcare costs, and improve overall patient well-being. However, a marked gap exists in understanding the service user’s perspective and whether end-users will accept this change to meet their complex needs. This perspective review explored literature to identify factors contributing to the acceptability of digital health technology (DHT) among respiratory patients. An examination of published DHTs over the past decade was conducted. As technology in healthcare remains in its infancy, supporting evidence is broad and non-specific, primarily focusing on acceptability after a solution’s deployment. Common themes associated with DHT acceptability include perceived usability, the quality of healthcare professional interaction, and self-management supported by data feedback. The review underscores a critical lack of focus on pre-implementation acceptability, long-term sustainability, risk management, and standardisation of DHTs. The identified gaps in knowledge are substantial, with the most urgent being pre-acceptability, risk, and standardisation. Consequently, there is a commensurate need to engage end-users in the co-design and policy-making process to ensure a sustainable and effective shift within healthcare towards remote monitoring and digital platforms.