Abstract Body

Background and purpose

Foreign-born persons unfamiliar with Dutch health practices have less confidence in the Dutch healthcare system and the GP. Cultural and language barriers can impede good delivery of care. Thuisarts.nl, the patient information website of the Dutch College of General Practitioners, offers reliable and easy-accessible health information. Thuisarts.nl supports GPs with patient education and improves patient empowerment. We evaluated the usage and perceived usefulness of an English pilot-version (GPinfo.nl) among internationals (i.e., foreign-born persons living in the Netherlands for work or study) and GPs in the Netherlands.

Methods

GPinfo.nl offers a selection of medical (n=19) and Dutch-healthcare topics (n=15), 1:1 translated from Thuisarts.nl. Newsletters and the Healthcare for internationals (H4i.nl) network promoted GPinfo.nl among GPs. A limited-budget social-media and Google-Adwords campaign was setup to reach internationals. The website was monitored from September-December 2020 using web-statistics, an online exit-survey (n=148), interviews (n=6) among internationals, an online survey (n=68) and interviews (n=6) among GPs.

Results

GPinfo.nl had 20,342 visits. 79% (95%CI=72-85%) and 78% (95%CI=72-85%) of internationals perceived GPinfo.nl to be reliable and relevant, respectively. 70% (95%CI=59-81%) and 77% (95%CI=67-87%) of GPs indicated that GPinfo.nl improved their interaction with international patients and the efficiency of their consultations, respectively. Internationals and GPs encouraged the initiative. Their suggested improvements for more impact were: more healthcare-system-related information and explanation of Dutch medical practices, greater coverage of medical subjects, and incorporation of cross-cultural sensitivity.

Conclusions

This pilot confirmed the need for and potential impact of health(care) information in English for internationals and GPs. However, a 1:1 translation of Thuisarts.nl seems yet insufficient and adaptation is required.