Journal Article

“I Want to Spend My Time Living”—Experiences With a Digital Outpatient Service With a Mobile App for Tailored Care Among Adults With Long-Term Health Service Needs: Qualitative Study Using Thematic Analysis

Holmen, Heidi, Fosse, Erik

2026

Overview

Digital health services are increasingly used in hospital-based outpatient care, offering remote monitoring, patient-reported outcomes, information sharing, and asynchronous communication. While expected to improve self-management, timeliness, and efficiency, the success of digital health interventions relies on patients' health literacy and digital health literacy. While some research has addressed potential associations between digital health interventions and patients' health outcomes, research on patients' experiences remains limited. The aim of this study was to explore and gain in-depth knowledge about the experiences of patients with chronic or long-term conditions enrolled in a 6-month digital outpatient care intervention for tailored care and health literacy. We conducted an exploratory qualitative interview study with 17 strategically recruited adult patients with cancer, interstitial lung disease, epilepsy, or complicated pain who used a digital outpatient service for 6 months. Individual telephone interviews were conducted using a semistructured guide, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed with thematic analysis to generate codes and themes. Participants had a median age of 62 years (minimum-maximum 36-83 years), with 8 females and 9 males. The thematic analysis led to 1 main theme \"Digital outpatient care as a flexible service supporting patients' self-management,\" informed by 3 subthemes \"The ongoing nature of managing a chronic condition and how the digital service meet the patients' desire for autonomy in their care,\" \"Digital tools flexibly address the patients' unique needs, but reliability depends on patient interaction,\" and \"Digital services enhance the patients' sense of safety through easy access to a relation with competent healthcare workers.\" The themes highlight patients' appreciation for greater flexibility in their care and their desire to self-manage with the support of easily accessible health care workers, ultimately supporting their health literacy. Patients recognized the importance of actively engaging with the digital solution to fully benefit from its opportunities and emphasized the critical role of health care workers in fostering their sense of security. Digital outpatient care was experienced as flexible and supportive for patients with long-term conditions. The increased possibility of interacting with health care workers was welcomed by the patients, and the combination of flexibility, self-monitoring, and addressing concerns regarding their self-management may increase the patients experience of autonomy. As health literacy likely plays a role in patients' ability to effectively engage with digital tools and self-manage their conditions, future research should explore how varying levels of health literacy influence these outcomes. In addition, research should address whether such digital outpatient clinics are positive for a wider range of patients, associated health outcomes, and any positive effects on a health system level. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05068869; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05068869.

• Publisher: Journal of Medical Internet Research,Gunther Eysenbach MD MPH, Associate Professor,JMIR Publications Inc,JMIR Publications
• Subject: Adult / Adults / Aged / Aged, 80 and over / Ambulatory Care / Analysis / Appreciation / Autonomy / Cancer / Chronic Disease - therapy / Chronic illnesses / Chronic pain / Clinical outcomes / Clinics / Communication / Communications industry / Consent / Desire / Digital health / Epilepsy / Evidence-based medicine / Female / Flexibility / Health aspects / Health education / Health Literacy / Health services / Health status / Humans / Information dissemination / Information sharing / Intervention / Interviews / Literacy / Long term / Long-Term Care / Lung cancer / Lung diseases / Male / Management / Medical personnel / Medical research / Medicine, Experimental / Middle Aged / Mobile Applications / Multimedia / Original Paper / Outpatient care facilities / Outpatient clinics / Outpatient treatment / Patient-centered care / Patients / Physician and patient / Practitioner patient relationship / Privacy / Professional relationships / Qualitative Research / Questionnaires / Registration / Reliability / Selfmanagement / Selfmonitoring / Software / Telecommunications services industry / Telemedicine / Workers