An investigation of healthcare professionals’ intention to use Smart Card Technology

• Published in: South African journal of information management Vol. 26; no. 1; pp. 1 - 10
• Main Authors: Malungana, Lario, Motsi, Lovemore
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cape Town African Online Scientific Information Systems (Pty) Ltd t/a AOSIS 2024; AOSIS (Pty) Ltd; AOSIS Publishing; AOSIS
• Subjects: adoption; Biometrics; Computer Science, Information Systems; Developing countries; Health care delivery; Health care industry; Health care policy; Health care reform; Health insurance; healthcare; Hospitals; Information management; Information Science & Library Science; Information services; Information systems; Integrated circuit cards; Internet of Things; Investigations; Medical informatics; Medical personnel; Medical records; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Monitoring systems; Patients; Professionals; Public health; smart card technology; Smart cards; South Africa; technology; Technology adoption; Telemedicine; South Africa; smart card technology; adoption; technology; patients; healthcare
• ISSN: 2078-1865; 1560-683X; 1560-683X
• DOI: 10.4102/sajim.v26i1.1663

Patient records are essential to healthcare professionals access to health information, allow them to assess symptoms and signs across a wider temporal range and improve diagnosis and treatment. The study acknowledged the significance of healthcare informatics such as Smart Card Technology (SCT) in today's dynamic health systems. This study aimed to investigate factors that influence healthcare professionals' intentions to use SCT in public healthcare. The study adopted a quantitative research approach using questionnaire surveys as a means to collect data from a total of 406 healthcare professionals from hospitals in Tshwane. The findings showed that all of the variables based on the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory, including behavioural intention (BI), social influence (SI), service quality (SQ), user satisfaction (US), compatibility (C), system use (SU) and information quality (IQ), as well as the health unified theory of acceptance of user technology (HUTAUT), DeLone and McLean's Information Systems Success (D&M ISS) model, had a positive impact on the intention to use the SCT. Continued use of SCT was positively correlated with user satisfaction and found a favourable correlation between BI and all of the factors. The healthcare professionals' intention to utilise SCT was notably impacted by various factors, including SI, SQ, US, C, SU and IQ. These factors collectively influence the intention to utilise the SCT. In addition, these findings show that BI has an impact on the intention to utilise SCT.