Trust in technology-mediated collaborative health encounters: Constructing trust in passive user interactions with technologies

Abstract

The present study investigated factors that explain patient trust in health technology and the relationship between patient trust in technology and trust in their care provider. Sociotechnical systems theory states that changes in one part of the system are likely related to other parts of the system. Therefore, attitudes about technologies, like trust, are likely related to other aspects of the system. Contributing to appropriate trust at the technological, interpersonal, and system levels can potentially lead to positive health outcomes. The study described in this manuscript used data collected from 101 patients with a Trust in Medical Technology instrument. The instrument measured patients’ trust in (1) their providers, (2) the technology, and (3) how their providers used the technology. Measure 3 was positively associated with measures 1 and 2, while measures 1 and 2 were not positively or negatively associated with one another. These results may indicate that patient assessments of the trustworthiness of care providers and technologies are based on their observations of how providers use technologies.

Practitioner Summary: Though patients are not active users of technologies in health care, the results of this study show that their perceptions of how providers use technology are related to their trust in both technology and the care provider. Study findings have implications for how trust is conceptualised and measured in interpersonal relationships and in technologies.

Keywords:

• trust
• sociotechnical systems
• health care
• health technology

Acknowledgements

This publication is supported by grant 1UL1RR025011 from National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) http://cqpi.engr.wisc.edu. The author would also like to thank Ben-Tzion Karsh, the editor and two anonymous reviewers who provided feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript.