Usefulness of digitalized clinical guidelines on chronic diseases at primary healthcare settings

Chang Sung-Goo
Department of Urology, Kyunghee University School of Medicine, KAMS
Bae Sang-chul
Department of Rheumatology, Hanyang University Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases and Clinical Research Center for Rheumatoid Arthritis, KAMS
Kim Jae-Kyu
Division of Gastroenterology, Chung-Ang University School of Medicine, KAMS
Shin Ein-Soon, Kim Da-Sol, Yu Kyeong-Mi
Research Center, Korean Academy of Medical Sciences
Song Geumju, Jang Juhyun, Lee Jung-youl, Kim Young Taek
Division of Chronic Disease Prevention, Center for Disease Prevention, KCDC

Digitalized clinical practice guidelines for primary care providers on chronic diseases including hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia were developed for personal computers (PCs) and mobile phones in 2018 (www.digitalcpg.kr). Fives types of the nationwide implementation strategies were devised to accelerate the utilization of the digitalized guidelines: developing leaflets to explain how to use them online (webzine, e-newsletter, and social media); registering search terms on portal sites, installing banners at the web pages of the Korean Association of Family Physicians and some regional medical associations; disseminating information at the national conferences for physicians; and mailing the information to public health centers nationwide. To assess the usefulness of the digitalized guidelines and tools, page visits were analyzed using Google. From January to April 2019, the number of new visits was 1,635 and that of revisits was 257. The hypertension page visits was most frequently viewed. By connecting devices, users by personal computers accounted for 59.2% (n=1,074), followed by mobiles (38.2%) and tablet (2.6%). By the connection paths, direct access took up 59.8%, followed by via the Korean Medical Guideline Information Center (14.8%) and via Naver search engine (7.9%). In addition, we assessed user’s satisfaction on the digitalized guidelines among 531 Korean physicians for 2 weeks, using a 5-point Likert scale. Response rate was 13.6% (n=72). Level of satisfaction for the mobile version (4.0±0.69) was higher than that for PCs version (3.9±0.65). In summary, the survey indicated that overall responses were positive from the end-users, with those implementation strategies proved to be working.

Keywords: Clinical practice guideline, Chronic disease, Personal satisfaction, Public health, Primary healthcare