Will E-Monitoring of Policy and Program Implementation Stifle or Enhance Practice? How Would We Know?
Electronic or digital monitoring systems could promote the visibility of health promotion and disease prevention programs by providing new tools to support the collection, analysis, and reporting of data. In clinical settings however, the benefits of e-monitoring of service delivery remain contested...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-09-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Public Health |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00243/full |
| _version_ | 1819073805655474176 |
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| author | Kathleen P. Conte Kathleen P. Conte Penelope Hawe Penelope Hawe Penelope Hawe |
| author_facet | Kathleen P. Conte Kathleen P. Conte Penelope Hawe Penelope Hawe Penelope Hawe |
| author_sort | Kathleen P. Conte |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Electronic or digital monitoring systems could promote the visibility of health promotion and disease prevention programs by providing new tools to support the collection, analysis, and reporting of data. In clinical settings however, the benefits of e-monitoring of service delivery remain contested. While there are some examples of e-monitoring systems improving patient outcomes, the smooth introduction into clinical practice has not occurred. Expected efficiencies have not been realized. The restructuring of team work has been problematic. Most particularly, knowledge from research has not advanced sufficiently because the meaning of e-monitoring has not been well theorized in the first place. As enthusiasm for e-monitoring in health promotion grows, it behooves us to ensure that health promotion practice learns from these insights. We outline the history of program monitoring in health promotion and the development of large-scale e-monitoring systems to track policy and program delivery. We interrogate how these technologies can be understood, noticing how they inevitably elevate some parts of practice over others. We suggest that progress in e-monitoring research and development could benefit from the insights and methods of improvement science (the science that underpins how practitioners attempt to solve problems and promote quality) as conceptually distinct from implementation science (the science of getting particular evidence-based programs into practice). To fully appreciate whether e-monitoring of program implementation will act as an aid or barrier to health promotion practice we canvass a wide range of theoretical perspectives. We illustrate how different theories draw attention to different aspects of the role of e-monitoring, and its impact on practice. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T17:59:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-90e5fdbfdc90400281c88e536adedfe2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-2565 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T17:59:28Z |
| publishDate | 2018-09-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Public Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-90e5fdbfdc90400281c88e536adedfe22022-12-21T18:55:07ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Public Health2296-25652018-09-01610.3389/fpubh.2018.00243403902Will E-Monitoring of Policy and Program Implementation Stifle or Enhance Practice? How Would We Know?Kathleen P. Conte0Kathleen P. Conte1Penelope Hawe2Penelope Hawe3Penelope Hawe4The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaMenzies Centre for Health Policy, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaThe Australian Prevention Partnership Centre, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaMenzies Centre for Health Policy, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaO'Brien Institute of Public Health, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, CanadaElectronic or digital monitoring systems could promote the visibility of health promotion and disease prevention programs by providing new tools to support the collection, analysis, and reporting of data. In clinical settings however, the benefits of e-monitoring of service delivery remain contested. While there are some examples of e-monitoring systems improving patient outcomes, the smooth introduction into clinical practice has not occurred. Expected efficiencies have not been realized. The restructuring of team work has been problematic. Most particularly, knowledge from research has not advanced sufficiently because the meaning of e-monitoring has not been well theorized in the first place. As enthusiasm for e-monitoring in health promotion grows, it behooves us to ensure that health promotion practice learns from these insights. We outline the history of program monitoring in health promotion and the development of large-scale e-monitoring systems to track policy and program delivery. We interrogate how these technologies can be understood, noticing how they inevitably elevate some parts of practice over others. We suggest that progress in e-monitoring research and development could benefit from the insights and methods of improvement science (the science that underpins how practitioners attempt to solve problems and promote quality) as conceptually distinct from implementation science (the science of getting particular evidence-based programs into practice). To fully appreciate whether e-monitoring of program implementation will act as an aid or barrier to health promotion practice we canvass a wide range of theoretical perspectives. We illustrate how different theories draw attention to different aspects of the role of e-monitoring, and its impact on practice.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00243/fullimplementationhealth information technologyhealth promotionquality improvementaccountabilityinnovation |
| spellingShingle | Kathleen P. Conte Kathleen P. Conte Penelope Hawe Penelope Hawe Penelope Hawe Will E-Monitoring of Policy and Program Implementation Stifle or Enhance Practice? How Would We Know? Frontiers in Public Health implementation health information technology health promotion quality improvement accountability innovation |
| title | Will E-Monitoring of Policy and Program Implementation Stifle or Enhance Practice? How Would We Know? |
| title_full | Will E-Monitoring of Policy and Program Implementation Stifle or Enhance Practice? How Would We Know? |
| title_fullStr | Will E-Monitoring of Policy and Program Implementation Stifle or Enhance Practice? How Would We Know? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Will E-Monitoring of Policy and Program Implementation Stifle or Enhance Practice? How Would We Know? |
| title_short | Will E-Monitoring of Policy and Program Implementation Stifle or Enhance Practice? How Would We Know? |
| title_sort | will e monitoring of policy and program implementation stifle or enhance practice how would we know |
| topic | implementation health information technology health promotion quality improvement accountability innovation |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00243/full |
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