Identifying Research Priorities for Digital Technology

Muhamad Aly Rifai claims that despite their potential, digital healthcare technologies remain a subject of debate and uncertainty about their most appropriate uses, including their effectiveness and costs. In addition, the broader context of digital technology, such as its impact on society and governance, is still unclear.

Developments in digital health (describing technologies that use computing platforms, connectivity, software, and sensors for health care and related purposes) can potentially transform health and social care delivery. They can potentially improve access and quality of life and can be used to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for quality of life and well-being.

To address this, the James Lind Alliance and the UK Department of Health formed a Priority Setting Partnership to identify research priorities that reflect the perspectives and needs of people with lived experience of mental health problems and their carers and healthcare practitioners. Participants contributed 1,369 questions via various methods, including online discussions and workshops.

Qualitative thematic analysis was applied to reduce the number of questions to six overarching themes. Then, 628 participants ranked the questions online and in workshops to produce a shortlist of 26.

The research identified a set of top ten research priorities in three fields, agreed upon by consensus at a stakeholder workshop. These include: 1. Cost-benefit assessment of digital technologies; 2. Development of digital health integration; and 3. The digitalization of healthcare services.