Abstract:

With the introduction of the electronic health record (EHR) in Germany at the beginning of 2021, the service is now available to all people with health insurance. The EHR makes it possible to centrally store medical data from different healthcare providers and make it available to other parties involved in care as needed. Older adults in particular, who often have less experience in using digital systems, than younger target groups, could be prevented from using the EHR by a lack of digital skills. To facilitate the use of the EHR for older adults in the future, an e-learning platform is being designed and developed as part of the publicly funded "ePA Coach" project. The emerging platform is intended to enable older adults to use the EHR confidently and self-determined. The competencies to be taught in the eLearning platform are based on the reference framework for digital competencies of the European Union (DigComp). This framework identifies the major components of digital competences. The framework distinguishes between two dimensions of digital competence: the overarching areas of competence and the individual competencies below them. However, this reference framework has been adapted to the requirements of the target group in the context of the EHR. As a part of the user-centered process, initial learning units addressing the adapted competences of the framework, were designed for being evaluated by older adults. These learning units were created in different forms to be able to derive preferences from the feedback of the respondents. Thus, one learning unit was implemented in the form of short texts, another as a long text, and the third as a video. The focus was on aspects such as feedback on the scope, wording, comprehensibility, and relevance of the content. In order to get an initial impression of the target group's knowledge of the EHR, the participants in the evaluation were additionally asked about their prior experience. Most of the participants had already heard of the EHR. Only just under one-third felt sufficiently informed to be able to deal confidently with the EHR in the future. Over 90% of respondents reported a desire to learn more about the EHR in the future. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the survey was conducted via an online survey. A total of 78 data sets were included in the evaluation. The mean age of the respondents was 73.5 years (min:65, max:93). The gender-ratio was nearly balanced with 53.5% of the respondents being male. Participants were asked to evaluate the learning units by assessing their impression of them using pairs of opposites in different categories. In addition, participants were asked to give a more detailed explanation of their impression of the respective learning unit and to compare the learning units with one another. The evaluation of the data showed that all forms of presentation were rated good or very good. However, the video and the short texts were rated more positively than the long text. The short texts and the video were found to be clearer and easier to understand than the long text. The results of this survey will serve as a basis for the creation of further learning units in the subsequent stages of the project. The surveyed preferences of the target group will be taken into account in order to adapt the learning offer to the needs of the users.

Keywords:

Digital literacy, Learning content, Older adults, e-learning, Electronic health record, Digital sovereignty, Empowerment.