The importance of trusting conditions for organizations’ readiness to implement mHealth to support healthy lifestyle behaviors: An interview study within Swedish child and school healthcare

Abstract

Objective: To explore perceptions among nurses, managers, and policymakers regarding organizational readiness to implement mHealth for the promotion of healthy lifestyle behaviors in child and school healthcare. Methods: Individual semi-structured interviews with nurses (n = 10), managers (n = 10), and policymakers (n = 8) within child and school healthcare in Sweden. Inductive content analysis was used for data analysis. Results: Data showed that various trust-building aspects in health care organizations may contribute to readiness to implement mHealth. Several aspects were perceived to contribute trusting conditions: (a) how health-related data could be stored and managed; (b) how mHealth aligned with current organizational ways of working; (c) how implementation of mHealth was governed; and (d) camaraderie within a healthcare team to facilitate use of mHealth in practice. Poor capability to manage health-related data, as well as lack of governance of mHealth implementation were described as dealbreakers for readiness to implement mHealth in healthcare organizations. Conclusions: Healthcare professionals and policymakers perceived that trusting conditions for mHealth implementation within organizations were central for readiness. Specifically, governance of mHealth implementation and the ability to manage health-data produced by mHealth were perceived critical for readiness.