From Tertiary to Primary Care - Understanding Context in the Transfer of Digital Headache Service Pathway

Abstract

A digital service pathway for managing chronic headache has been designed in tertiary care in Finland. The digital tool facilitates self-management by providing exercises, information and messaging opportunities for patients. However, the largest potential benefits are in primary and occupational care. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the needs and requirements of primary and occupational care actors for better understanding of the context in the transfer of the service. The study was performed as a single embedded case study. The qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 16 informants from different organizations and analyzed with Gioia-methodology. This study gathers important empirical knowledge about the meaning of context and transferring digital health interventions from one context to another from clinician and management perspective. Nine key contextual differences were identified and six main expectations emerged.