Being in touch: narrative assessment of patients receiving online integrative oncology treatments during COVID-19

Abstract

Objective We examined the qualitative impact of an online integrative oncology (IO) treatment program, designed in response to the restrictions created by the current COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Patients undergoing chemotherapy were seen by an integrative physician (IP), together co-designing an IO treatment program of ≥ 6 weekly treatments to alleviate symptoms and improve quality of life (QoL). IO practitioners guided patients and their caregivers online in self-treatment with manual/touch, movement, and/or mind-body modalities. Narratives of both patients and IO practitioners were analyzed for systematic coding, identifying barriers and advantages of the online treatment program. Results Narratives obtained from 30 patients and eight IO-trained practitioners were examined. The patients had undergone 169 online IO sessions with a total of 327 IO interventions during the 3-month study period. Patient narratives included reflections on both non-specific effects (e.g., less of a “sense of isolation”) and specific QoL-related outcomes with the online intervention. IO practitioner narratives focused on barriers to providing manual-movement and mind-body modalities, suggesting practical recommendations on how to address specific QoL-related outcomes using the online IO “toolbox.” Conclusions Effective online IO practitioner-guided treatments are feasible and may induce both specific and non-specific QoL-related effects. Future research needs to explore online IO interventions for additional situations in which access to IO care is limited.

Creatively Adapting Touch-Based Practices to the Web Format During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Systematic Review

“…Sometimes, practitioners built on existing experiences in their field (eg, in primary care [4]), and sometimes they explored web-based formats anew or learned from other fields [5]. Quickly, field-specific recommendations on remote care delivery and the use of ITs were published [5][6][7][8][9]. Although these publications acknowledged the challenge of the lack of physical closeness and touch-based practices in web-based settings, they rarely provided concrete resolutions to address this crucial aspect in remote sessions [8].…”

Nurse-guided patient self-treatment in integrative oncology: a randomized controlled trial

“…Zick et al investigated self-administered acupressure for persistent cancer-related fatigue in breast cancer survivors, and found the intervention improved fatigue when compared with usual care, along with sleep quality and QoL [ 23 ]. The shift toward a more patient-guided treatment approach, with self-administered therapy, has become even more relevant during the current COVID-19 pandemic [ 24 ]. This process has been facilitated by the creation of online practice recommendations, such as those published by the Online Task Force of the Society for Integrative Oncology [ 5 ].…”

User innovation rings the bell for new horizons in e-health: a bibliometric analysis

“…2.4 User innovation in healthcareclinical UI has gained considerable attention in the healthcare sector through the vigorous role of surgeons and medical practitioners, who have come up with radical and sophisticated innovation projects such as X-ray systems or surgery tools to address various clinical problems (F€ uller, 2010;Lettl et al, 2006;McNichol, 2012). In purely clinical contexts, UI has been applied in several cases to diverse medical diseases such as cancer (Leach et al, 2019), oncology treatments (Ben-Arye et al, 2021) and mental diseases (Edbrooke-Childs et al, 2019), to name a few. With the pervasiveness of e-health technologies, end users are involved in innovation processes for disclosing information needs (Biswas et al, 2008;Walker and Clendon, 2016) and relieving communication difficulties between patients and health professionals (Marko-Holguin et al, 2019;Niemel€ a et al, 2019).…”

“…In purely clinical contexts, UI has been applied in several cases to diverse medical diseases such as cancer (Leach et al. , 2019), oncology treatments (Ben-Arye et al. , 2021) and mental diseases (Edbrooke-Childs et al.…”