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Background: Connected mental health (CMH) is a field presenting information and communications technology–based mental care interventions that could help overcome many mental care delivery barriers. Culture and background influence people’s attitudes, preferences, and acceptance of such solutions. Therefore, the suitability of CMH solutions to the targeted population is an important factor in their successful adoption. Objectives: The aim of this study is to develop a framework for the design and creation of CMH solutions suitable for the UAE context. The framework is based on investigating enablers and barriers of CMH adoption in the United Arab Emirates, from the mental health professional’s (MHP) perspective and from related literature. Methods: A survey of literature on relevant studies addressing the use of technology for mental care in Arab countries, and a web-based questionnaire-based survey with 17 MHPs practicing in the United Arab Emirates investigating their attitudes and views toward CMH was conducted. Results from the questionnaire and from related studies were analyzed to develop the design framework. Results: On the basis of findings from the literature survey and analyzing MHP answers to the web-based survey, a framework for the design of CMH solutions for the UAE population was developed. The framework presents four types of recommendation categories: favorable criteria, which included blended care, anonymity, and ease of use; cultural factors including availability in multiple languages, mainly Arabic and English, in addition to religious and cultural considerations; technical considerations, including good-quality communication, availability in formats compatible with mobile phones, and providing technical support; and users’ health and data safety considerations, including users’ suitability testing, confidentiality, and ensuring MHP integrity. Conclusions: CMH has the potential to help overcome many mental care barriers in the United Arab Emirates in particular and in the Arab world in general. CMH adoption in the United Arab Emirates has a potential for success. However, many factors should be taken into account, mainly cultural, religious, and linguistic aspects.

Background: This paper examines the development of the Connected Health research landscape with a view on providing a historical perspective on existing Connected Health research. Connected Health has become a rapidly growing research field as our healthcare system is facing pressured to become more proactive and patient centred. Objective: We aimed to identify the extent and coverage of the current body of knowledge in Connected Health. With this, we want to identify which topics have drawn the attention of Connected health researchers, and if there are gaps or interdisciplinary opportunities for further research. Methods: We used a systematic mapping study that combines scientific contributions from research on medicine, business, computer science and engineering. We analyse the papers with seven classification criteria, publication source, publication year, research types, empirical types, contribution types research topic and the condition studied in the paper. Results: Altogether, our search resulted in 208 papers which were analysed by a multidisciplinary group of researchers. Our results indicate a slow start for Connected Health research but a more recent steady upswing since 2013. The majority of papers proposed healthcare solutions (37%) or evaluated Connected Health approaches (23%). Case studies (28%) and experiments (26%) were the most popular forms of scientific validation employed. Diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and heart conditions are among the most prevalent conditions studied. Conclusions: We conclude that Connected Health research seems to be an established field of research, which has been growing strongly during the last five years. There seems to be more focus on technology driven research with a strong contribution from medicine, but business aspects of Connected health are not as much studied.

Background: This study examines the development of the connected health (CH) research landscape with a view to providing an overview of the existing CH research. The research field of CH has experienced rapid growth coinciding with increasing pressure on health care systems to become more proactive and patient centered. Objective: This study aimed to assess the extent and coverage of the current body of knowledge in CH. In doing so, we sought to identify specific topics that have drawn the attention of CH researchers and to identify research gaps, in particular those offering opportunities for further interdisciplinary research. Methods: A systematic mapping study that combined scientific contributions from research in the disciplines of medicine, business, computer science, and engineering was used. Overall, seven classification criteria were used to analyze the papers, including publication source, publication year, research type, empirical type, contribution type, research topic, and the medical condition studied. Results: The search resulted in 208 papers that were analyzed by a multidisciplinary group of researchers. The results indicated a slow start for CH research but showed a more recent steady upswing since 2013. The majority of papers proposed health care solutions (77/208, 37.0%) or evaluated CH approaches (49/208, 23.5%). Case studies (59/208, 28.3%) and experiments (55/208, 26.4%) were the most popular forms of scientific validation used. Diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and heart conditions were among the most prevalent medical conditions studied. Conclusions: We conclude that CH research has become an established field of research that has grown over the last five years. The results of this study indicate a focus on technology-driven research with a strong contribution from medicine, whereas the business aspects of CH have received less research attention.

Background: Connected health has created opportunities for leveraging health data to deliver preventive and personalized health care services. The increasing number of personal devices and advances in measurement technologies contribute to an exponential growth in digital health data. The practices for sharing data across the health ecosystem are evolving as there are more opportunities for using such data to deliver responsive health services. Objective: The objective of this study was to explore user attitudes toward sharing personal health data (PHD). The study was executed within the first year after the implementation of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legal framework. Methods: The authors analyzed the results of an online questionnaire survey to explore the willingness of 8004 people using connected health services across four European countries to share their PHD and the conditions under which they would be willing to do so. Results: Our findings indicate that the majority of users are willing to share their personal PHD for scientific research (1811/8004, 22.63%). Age, education level, and occupation of the participants, in addition to the level of digitalization in their country were found to be associated with data sharing attitudes. Conclusions: Positive attitudes toward data sharing for scientific research can be perceived as an indication of trust established between users and academia. Nevertheless, the interpretation of data sharing attitudes is a complex process, related to and influenced by various factors.

The amount of personal health data (PHD) for each individual in Europe has radically increased due to the adoption of various technologies in everyday life, such as mobile phones and wearable sensors. PHD can include different types of health-related data, such as medical records, fitness tracking, transportation data, or behavioral data from social media. Health data are invaluable to support people in acquiring timely knowledge about their health and wellbeing. Access to PHD provides users of information systems (IS) with the opportunity to acquire self-knowledge and participate in decision making, while sharing PHD with other stakeholders can facilitate knowledge sharing. Despite this, recent reports support that, on average, only 18% of the European population have used their PHD through digital services (European Commission, 2019). Prior research about PHD access in IS has mainly focused on the technical aspects of the topic. This had led to limited empirical knowledge about users’ access encounters with PHD. In the frame of this dissertation, access encounters are considered the moments that users interacted with their PHD through IS. As for PHD sharing, the implementation of new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) renewed research interest towards the exploration of users’ willingness to share their PHD with other stakeholders in a healthcare context. A literature review addressed the lack of case studies in prior work about PHD access and sharing, thus motivating the development of the first empirical studies. The development of the rest of the studies was exploratory, building upon the findings that emerged through the course of empirical work. This doctoral dissertation uses an embedded case study consisting of four embedded units to answer a single research question (RQ). This dissertation contributes with updated knowledge that lies at the intersection of IS, health informatics, and human-data interaction (HDI), answering the RQ: What recommendations are relevant for IS designers and developers to enable PHD access and sharing? Based on the findings of the case study, five recommendations (R) were found to be relevant for IS designers and developers in connected health (CH) to foster the development of IS. The five recommendations can also sensitize policy makers to consider the timely nature of the two research topics. The recommendations are particularly relevant to this audience due to the timeframe of the study (2018–2020), which coincides with the enforcement of the new GDPR in May 2018. The recommendations highlight the temporal and subjective nature of PHD access and sharing, introducing implications at a theoretical and practical level. This dissertation proposes the consideration of the five recommendations during the design and development phases of IS: R1) consider how users perceive health and PHD; R2) consider what data types and formats foster PHD access; R3) simplify medical terms, provide visualizations, and interfaces to nurture usability and personalization features, thus promoting thus the perceived value of PHD; R4) consider age, education, occupation, and digitalization to encourage PHD sharing with stakeholders; and R5) consider data privacy under the prism of data types, access control and trust, conditions of sharing, and the purpose of data processing. Tiivistelmä Henkilökohtaisen terveystiedon määrä Euroopassa on kasvanut jokapäiväisen teknologian, kuten matkapuhelimien ja puettavien sensorien, lisäännyttyä. Henkilökohtainen terveystieto voi sisältää erilaista terveyteen liittyvää tietoa, kuten potilasasiakirjoja, kuntoilutietoa tai terveyskäyttäytymiseen liittyvää tietoa. Terveystieto auttaa ihmisiä ymmärtämän terveyttään ja hyvinvointiaan. Pääsy terveystietoon antaa tietojärjestelmien käyttäjille mahdollisuuden parempaan itsetuntemukseen ja päätöksentekoon osallistumiseen, ja terveystiedon jakaminen voi auttaa tietämyksen jaossa. Tästä huolimatta tutkimukset osoittavat, että vain 18 prosenttia eurooppalaisista on käyttänyt henkilökohtaista terveystietoaan (European Commission, 2019). Aiempi tutkimus henkilökohtaisen terveystiedon saatavuudesta on keskittynyt teknisiin seikkoihin. Tästä johtuen empiiristä tutkimustietoa käyttäjien kokemuksista henkilökohtaisen terveystiedon saatavuudesta on vähemmän. Tässä väitöskirjassa tarkastellaan niitä ajallisia hetkiä, joissa ihmiset käyttivät tietojärjestelmiä henkilökohtaisen terveystietonsa hyödyntämiseen. Eurooppalaisen tietosuojalainsäädännön (General Data Protection Regulation) käyttöönottoa tarkasteltiin tutkimuksessa henkilökohtaisen terveystiedon jakamisen näkökulmasta. Tutkimuksessa raportoitu kirjallisuuskatsaus osoitti, että empiirisestä tutkimuksesta henkilökohtaisen terveystiedon käyttämisestä ja jakamisesta on puute. Tämä johti tutkimuksessa raportoituun tutkimukseen. Tutkimusmenetelmänä käytettiin sulautettua tapaustutkimusta, joka koostui neljästä tapausyksiköstä, jotka vastasivat yhteen tutkimuskysymykseen. Tämä tutkimuskysymys on: Mitkä suositukset ovat relevantteja tietojärjestelmien suunnittelijoille henkilökohtaisen terveystiedon käytön ja jakamisen suunnitteluun? Tapaustutkimuksen löydösten pohjalta väitöskirjassa esitetään viisi suositusta, jotka ovat relevantteja terveyteen liittyvien tietojärjestelmien suunnittelijoille ja toteuttajille. Nämä viisi suositusta voivat myös auttaa päättäjiä terveystiedon jakamiseen liittyvissä ajankohtaisissa kysymyksissä. Suositukset ovat erityisen relevantteja tälle kohderyhmälle, koska tutkimus on tehty juuri uuden eurooppalaisen tietosuojalainsäädännön (GDPR) soveltamisen aikaan 2018. Suositukset korostavat henkilökohtaisen terveystiedon käytön ja jakamisen ajallista ja subjektiivista luonnetta. Sillä on vaikutuksia sekä teoreettisella ja käytännön tasolla. Ehdotetut suositukset ovat: R1) ota huomioon se, kuinka käyttäjät ymmärtävät terveyttä ja terveyteen liittyvää tietoa, R2) ota huomioon eri datatyypit ja formaatit terveystiedon saavutettavuudessa, R3) yksinkertaista lääketieteellisiä termejä, tarjoa visualisaatioita ja rajapintoja käytettävyyden ja personoinnin tueksi ja lisätäksesi henkilökohtaisen terveystiedon koettua arvoa, R4) ota huomioon ikä, koulutustausta, ammattitausta ja digitalisaation aste henkilökohtaisen terveystiedon jakamiseen kannustamisessa, ja R5) ota huomioon yksityisyys eri tietotyyppien, luottamuksen, jakamisen ehtojen ja tiedon prosessoinnin tarkoituksen näkökulmista.