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Digital counselling may improve patients' health outcomes, when eHealth solutions are accessible and tailored to the patients' needs, which is especially important for people with chronic and long-term conditions such as knee osteoarthritis. This study aims to identify patients' eHealth needs to improve the quality of digital counselling in a primary care management of symptomatic knee osteoarthritis. A qualitative study was used to collect patients' eHealth needs through semi-structured interviews in a single outpatient clinic in Finland between August 2020 and November 2020. The data was analyzed using both deductive and inductive content analysis approaches. The study was reported in accordance with the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative research checklist to improve the transparency of the study.
Analysis of the data revealed five main categories to be considered when implementing digital counselling in patients with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis: background factors (functional impairments, health literacy, digital literacy, cost-related access barriers), resources (digital methods and materials), sufficiency (knee osteoarthritis-related knowledge and skills), implementation (simplicity, trust, patient-centeredness), and benefits (self-care capabilities, confidence).
According to our findings, both health and digital literacy seems to be important contributors to the adoption of digital counselling in a primary care management of symptomatic knee osteoarthritis. New eHealth solutions should not replace the first visit in the outpatient clinic. Instead, the use of eHealth solutions should be based on the first visit, during which a trusting relationship between patients and healthcare providers is established. In future, the level of health and digital literacy in patients with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis should be taken account.

In the era of digital transformation, the healthcare industry stands at a significant crossroad. With Value-Based Healthcare (VBHC) at the core of this transition, the role of accountants is evolving dramatically. This book brings these pieces together to guide accountants and interested readers through the changing landscape.

End-users' involvement is crucial to develop human-centered solutions; patient acceptance and endorsement by clinicians will be achieved when the features of digital solutions align with their needs and expectations.
The aim of the study was to develop the overall concept of digital solution to increase transparency, foster patient adherence, and improve patient-provider communication across the entire total hip and knee arthroplasty journey from admission to discharge, and beyond.
Two-stage iterative co-design process was used. Systematic literature reviews and qualitative interviews were conducted to understand the problem. In addition, co-creation sessions were used develop the solution for a reference implementation.
As a result, a total of 19 technical and functional requirements were identified. In addition, ten additional functional requirements were identified for future design. The results demonstrate the overall concept of a digital solution for the reference implementation. The uniqueness of the solution lies in the vision of wider integrated systems, which could offer a clinical platform for clinicians to provide patient-focused care remotely, while monitoring patients' progress closely.

Mobile health solutions for patient support have been proposed as promising and safe alternatives to usual care in adults undergoing primary total hip and knee arthroplasty. Studies of such applications, however, have produced conflicting results and only moderate- to low-quality evidence.
This study aims to evaluate the short-term effects of a digital patient journey solution on patient-reported outcomes and health care utilization in patients undergoing total hip and knee arthroplasty using a pragmatic randomized controlled trial design. Randomly allocated patients in the control arm (n = 35, 64 ± 9 years) received usual care, while patients in the intervention arm (n = 34, 62 ± 11 years) received the digital patient journey solution in addition to usual care.
The primary outcome was health-related quality of life as measured by the EuroQol EQ-5D-5L scale. Secondary outcomes included functional recovery, pain, self-efficacy, patient experience, adherence to fast-track protocol, and health care utilization. Participants were followed from a preoperative surgical visit until a postoperative follow-up visit at 6–12 weeks.
The health-related quality of life, functional recovery, pain, patient experience, adherence to the fast-track protocol, and health care utilization did not differ between the arms. During the study, however, the self-efficacy to use digital health services (p=0.027) increased in the intervention arm.
The use of the digital patient journey solution was not superior to usual care in terms of patient-reported outcomes and health care utilization. However, the solution improved the self-efficacy of patients to use digital health services, which may lead to greater demand for similar digital offerings as patient become more familiar with mobile health solutions.