Govert Veldhuijzen

25 General introduction, history of patient education in endoscopy, aim and outline AIM The goal of this thesis is to establish the position of several eHealth initiatives and validated tools to improve patient care in daily practice of endoscopy. To achieve this aim, the following objectives were established: 1. To develop an eHealth intervention for patient education prior to endoscopy 2. To implement the eHealth intervention in daily practice, identifying key factors for success 3. To evaluate relevant outcome measures for assessing the effect of eHealth interventions OUTLINE In this thesis, I describe a pilot study evaluating the hospital based computer assisted instruction prototype for patient prior to colonoscopy (chapter 2) . Next, I provide an overview of the implementation process for the first hospitals using this new technology ( chapter 3) . The subsequent development of computer based education at home prior to colonoscopy including a video, 3D-animations, text and voce-over, showing every step of the process is outlined in (chapter 4) together with the study protocol for a multicenter trial to evaluate this tool. I discuss the main outcomes of this trial in (chapter 5) , including the potential cost savings (chapter 6) . Our group executed a feasibility study of a practical application of an eHealth intervention during endoscopy with virtual reality glasses (chapter 7) . Next, our group examined a validated questionnaire designed to evaluate the effect of eHealth interventions on satisfaction (chapter 8) . Finally, I present a general discussion and future perspectives of the thesis (chapter 9) . An overview of the main research questions, study design and measures for all individual chapters is highlighted in table 2. 1