Digital health interventions in palliative care: A systematic meta-review

Anne Finucane, Hannah O'Donnell, Jean Lugton, Tilly Gibson-Watt, Connie Swenson, Claudia Pagliari

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Digital health interventions (DHIs) have the potential to improve the accessibility and effectiveness of palliative care but heterogeneity amongst existing systematic reviews presents a challenge for evidence synthesis. This meta-review applied a structured search of 10 databases from 2006 to 2020, revealing 21 relevant systematic reviews, encompassing 332 publications. Interventions delivered via videoconferencing (17%), electronic healthcare records (16%) and phone (13%) were most frequently described in studies within reviews. DHIs were typically used in palliative care for education (20%), symptom management (15%), decision-making (13%), information provision or management (13%), and communication (9%). Across all reviews, mostly positive impacts were reported on education, information-sharing, decision-making, communication, and costs. Impacts on quality of life and physical and psychological symptoms were inconclusive. Applying AMSTAR 2 criteria, most reviews were judged as low quality as they lacked a protocol or did not consider risk of bias, so findings need to be interpreted with caution.
Original languageEnglish
Journalnpj Digital Medicine
Volume64
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 6 Apr 2021

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • eHealth
  • palliative care
  • end-of-life, innovation
  • systematic review
  • meta-review

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