Effectiveness of eHealth Interventions and Information Needs in Palliative Care: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

BackgroundOne of the key components in palliative care is communication. eHealth technologies can be an effective way to support communications among participants in the process of palliative care. However, it is unclear to what extent information technology has been established in this field.ObjectiveOur goal was to systematically identify studies and analyze the effectiveness of eHealth interventions in palliative care and the information needs of people involved in the palliative care process.MethodsWe conducted a systematic literature search using PubMed, Embase, and LILACS according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We collected and analyzed quantitative and qualitative data regarding effectiveness of eHealth interventions and users’ information needs in palliative care.ResultsOur search returned a total of 240 articles, 17 of which met our inclusion criteria. We found no randomized controlled trial studying the effects of eHealth interventions in palliative care. Studies tended to be observational, noncontrolled studies, and a few quasi-experimental studies. Overall there was great heterogeneity in the types of interventions and outcome assessments; some studies reported some improvement on quality of care, documentation effort, cost, and communications. The most frequently reported information need concerned pain management.ConclusionsThere is limited evidence around the effectiveness of eHealth interventions for palliative care patients, caregivers, and health care professionals. Focused research on information needs and high-quality clinical trials to assess their effectiveness are needed.

Effectiveness of Web-Based Psychosocial Interventions for Family Caregivers of Older People: What Do We Know?

“…In this respect, different reviews pointed out that programs addressing family caregivers of older people should take advantage of interactivity, connecting caregivers to peers and professional staff [11,24]. The online group component seem actually to be the most used and valued one of any given website, application or intervention [13].…”

Platform of Services to the Support and Development of Applications for Care Activities

“…The use of technological solutions have a significant importance in providing information services to mediate interactions among the different actors that build functional care around the care receiver. This approach has been proposed by various authors, based on different technologies, including the management of chronic diseases (3,4) . Furthermore, through innovative monitoring devices, there is a considerable effort to develop suitable services to manage psychosocial information, information generated by the care receivers and their informal caregivers, and information resulting from automatic data gathering about individuals and their environments.…”

An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Modalities Used to Deliver Electronic Health Interventions for Chronic Pain: Systematic Review With Network Meta-Analysis (Preprint)

“…The core value proposition for delivering healthcare via an eHealth modality is that the barriers experienced by traditional in-person treatment methods are reduced or potentially removed [18,19,20,21,4]. For instance, an online eHealth intervention may improve accessibility to treatment, reduce the waiting list duration and can be delivered more costeffectively than in-person services (e.g., [22]).…”