As precision medicine becomes a mainstay in health care, the use of health information technology (IT) platforms will play an important role in the delivery of services across the cancer care continuum. Currently, there is both limited understanding about perceptions of health IT tools and barriers to their use among cancer genetic counselors. We assessed open‐ended responses from a survey conducted among 128 board‐certified cancer genetic counselors in the United States. We evaluated the utility of ten health IT tools and perceived barriers to adoption. Responses about characteristics of health IT tools that influence current use (i.e., technology‐specific challenges) were deductively analyzed using the diffusion of innovations (DOI) characteristics. Responses about cancer genetic counselors' perceived challenges to adopting health IT tools (i.e., discipline‐specific challenges) were inductively coded using a thematic approach. DOI innovation characteristics included mixed perceptions about the relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, trialability, and observability of tools based on the type of tool and perceived end‐user. One‐third of participants indicated that they were considering adopting or switching health IT tools. Common barriers to adoption included no perceived need for change, lack of organizational infrastructure, cost, and lack of decision‐making power. Our findings indicate that addressing barriers to use and adoption of health IT may allow for expansion of these tools among cancer genetic counselors. Integrating health IT is critical for enhancing cancer genetic counselors’ capacity to address patient needs and realizing the potential of precision medicine.

中文翻译：

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癌症遗传咨询师使用健康信息技术的专题分析

随着精准医疗成为医疗保健的支柱，健康信息技术 (IT) 平台的使用将在整个癌症护理连续体的服务提供中发挥重要作用。目前，癌症遗传咨询师对健康 IT 工具的看法及其使用障碍的理解有限。我们评估了一项在美国 128 名获得委员会认证的癌症遗传咨询师中进行的调查的开放式回答。我们评估了 10 种健康 IT 工具的效用和采用的感知障碍。使用创新传播 (DOI) 特征对有关影响当前使用的健康 IT 工具特征（即特定技术挑战）的反应进行了演绎分析。关于癌症遗传咨询师的回应 采用主题方法对采用健康 IT 工具的感知挑战（即特定学科的挑战）进行归纳编码。DOI 创新特征包括基于工具类型和感知的最终用户对工具的相对优势、复杂性、兼容性、可试用性和可观察性的不同看法。三分之一的参与者表示他们正在考虑采用或更换健康 IT 工具。采用的常见障碍包括认为不需要改变、缺乏组织基础设施、成本和缺乏决策权。我们的研究结果表明，解决使用和采用健康 IT 的障碍可能允许在癌症遗传咨询师中扩展这些工具。