Wearable Technology in Hospitals: Overcoming Patient Concerns About Privacy

• Published in: HCI in Business, Government, and Organizations: Information Systems Vol. 9752; pp. 446 - 456
• Main Authors: Sergueeva, Ksenia, Shaw, Norman
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer International Publishing AG 2016; Springer International Publishing
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: Business applications; Hospitals; Privacy; Technology adoption; Wearables
• ISBN: 3319393987; 9783319393988
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-39399-5_42

Wristbands that record patients’ details and track their location have recently been adopted by some Canadian hospitals. This new technology has the potential to save costs and enhance patient safety. However, there are risks that the data collected will be viewed by non-authorized users and that medical history will be exposed unnecessarily. Patients may therefore be reluctant to accept these wristbands. The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors associated with these patient concerns so that hospitals are able to overcome them and continue with the adoption of wearable technology. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) is extended with Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and perceived privacy risk. A qualitative empirical study, based on interviews with hospital staff, is planned to identify the themes that support this theoretical framework.