Digital Health Interventions by Clinical Pharmacists: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Integrating digital interventions in healthcare has gained increasing popularity among clinical pharmacists (CPs) due to advances in technology. The purpose of this study was to systematically review CP-led digital interventions to improve patients’ health-related clinical outcomes. PubMed and the Cochrane Database were searched to select studies that had conducted a randomized controlled trial to evaluate clinical outcomes in adults following a CP-led digital intervention for the period from January 2005 to August 2021. A total of 19 studies were included in our analysis. In these 19 studies, the most commonly used digital intervention by CPs was telephone use (n = 15), followed by a web-based tool (n = 2) and a mobile app (n = 2). These interventions were provided to serve a wide range of purposes in patients’ outcomes: change in lab values (e.g., blood pressure, HbA1c) (n = 23), reduction in health service use (n = 8), enhancing adherence (n = 6), improvement in drug-related outcomes (n = 6), increase in survival (n = 3), and reduction in health-related risk (e.g., CVD risk) (n = 2). Although the impacts of telephone-based interventions on patients’ outcomes were decidedly mixed, web-based interventions and mobile apps exerted generally positive influences. To date, little research has investigated the cost-effectiveness of digital interventions. Future studies are warranted.

Economic Evaluation of Pharmacist-Led Digital Health Interventions: A Systematic Review

“…The current study found that telephoning was the most frequently used intervention tool among pharmacists. This finding is consistent with the results from other studies [9,10]. Nine out of the 14 studies included in this review (64.3%) adopted a telephone-either as a single digital intervention tool or combined with another digital tool.…”

“…Nine out of the 14 studies included in this review (64.3%) adopted a telephone-either as a single digital intervention tool or combined with another digital tool. Similarly, a telephone was used most frequently as a digital intervention tool in 69.2% of the community pharmacists' interventions [9] and 78.9% of the clinical pharmacists' interventions [10]. Notably, computers or web-based interventions were used as intervention tools in only three studies.…”

“…Pharmacists also use digital technology in their practices. They used telephones, mobile applications, and a remote monitoring device to improve medication adherence and drug-related outcomes, to educate patients, and to monitor patient symptoms remotely [9][10][11]. Pharmacists also provided computer-or web-based interventions to improve hypertension management [12] and to reduce medication errors and adverse events [13,14].…”

The Clinical Effects of Type 2 Diabetes Patient Management Using Digital Healthcare Technology: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…This finding indicates that digital healthcare technology is effective in improving clinical outcomes of T2DM patients. Similarly, Park et al [ 24 ] systemically reviewed digital health interventions using telephones, web tools, and mobile apps by clinical pharmacists. Their recent study results found that mobile-based and web-based interventions improved clinical effects on lab values.…”

Hosting an Online World Café to Develop an Understanding of Digital Health Promoting Settings from a Citizen’s Perspective—Methodological Potentials and Challenges

“…Thus, low-threshold accessibility of target groups, user-oriented technologies [ 4 ], and partly a higher reach, greater effectiveness, and time and cost savings of interventions are possible [ 5 ]. In addition, digital interventions can help increase digital competencies connected to health [ 6 ] and are also effective in improving health-related clinical outcomes [ 7 ].…”