Overcoming Clinician Technophobia: What We Learned from Our Mass Exposure to Telehealth During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Andrew Sherrill, Emory University; Christopher W Wiese, Georgia Institute of Technology; Saeed Abdullah, Pennsylvania State University; Rosa I Arriaga, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Language: English
• Date: 2022-12-01
• Publisher: Emory University Libraries
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41347-022-00273-3
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 4
• Start Page: 547
• End Page: 553
• Grant/Funding Information: National Science Foundation, Award # 1915504, Title: Prolonged Exposure Collective Sensing System (PECSS) for PTSD.
• Keywords: Pandemic; COVID-19; Technophobia; Future of work; Technology acceptance; Telehealth; Exposure therapy; Technology integration
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery

Abstract

Mental health clinicians have migrated to telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic and have reported their use of telehealth may be permanent. Understanding how stakeholders overcame hesitancy regarding the use of telehealth can potentially reveal how stakeholders can adopt future clinical technologies. The exposure therapy conceptual framework provides one explanation of how mental health clinicians can face their concerns about technologies that promise to improve clinical outcomes and worker well-being. We review available literature published since the start of the pandemic on the extent to which clinicians migrated to telehealth and their reactions to their transitions. In particular, we review available literature that describes negative attitudes and worries by clinicians as one of many barriers of telehealth implementation. We introduce the perspective that the necessary transition to telehealth at the start of the pandemic functioned as an exposure exercise that changed many clinicians’ cognitive and emotional reactions to the use of telehealth technologies. Next, we provide guidance on how clinicians can continue taking an exposure approach to learning emerging technologies that are safe and can benefit all stakeholders. Clinicians can now reflect on how they overcame hesitancy regarding telehealth during the pandemic and identify how to build on that new learning by applying strategies used in exposure therapy. The future of clinical work will increasingly require mental health clinicians to better serve their patient populations and enhance their own well-being by overcoming technophobia, a broad term for any level of hesitancy, reluctance, skepticism, worry, anxiety, or fear of implementing technology.