CureCancer Digital Platform In The Routine Clinical Oncology Practice Facilitates Patients’ Self-Data Recording, Communicating With Health Care Professionals, Treatment Adherence And “Distancing Interventions” During Covid-19 And Reduces Costs. A Feasibility And Satisfaction Study*.

Abstract Purpose: We assessed CureCancer’s feasibility and patients’ and HCPs’ satisfaction. CureCancer is a patient-centric/driven platform, which enables patients to self-create their profile, report symptoms and communicate with physicians.Methods: Patients from 18 Centers were asked to register at CureCancer, upload their data and complete a questionnaire on demographics, disease and treatment characteristics, and their satisfaction. Results: 159 patients were enrolled and 144 (90.6%) registered. 114 of 144 (79.1%), 63 males and 51 females, median age 54.5 years, completed the questionnaire. 64 patients were University and 35 were high School graduates. 46 patients had metastatic disease, 87 were on active treatment and 51 received supportive care. All patients also visited non-oncology HCPs. Nineteen patients changed work status and 49 had children below 24 years. Registration was “very/very much” easy for 98 (86.0 %) patients. File uploading was “very/very much” easy for 47 (41.2%) patients. Over 80% of patients and physicians preferred the digital way. 99 patients and all HCPs will recommend CureCancer to others. Easy data access, improved communication, feeling safe, treatment adherence, interventions from distance, particularly during covid-19 pandemic and saving time and money, were highly commented by patients and HCPs. Conclusion: CureCancer was feasible and patients and HCPs were satisfied. File uploading changed to become more user friendly. Integration of CureCancer in the routine practice is expected to improve cancer care and reduce cancer costs. Patients’ self-reporting, with CureCancer, can increase the accuracy of clinical trial results and map social/work/economic issues following cancer diagnosis to assist health care policy.

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The Use of and Attitude Towards Telehealth in Rural Communities

Australian Journal of Primary Health ◽

10.1071/py07035 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 29 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Emily Mauldon

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Primary Health Care ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Routine Practice ◽

Care Providers ◽

Urban Hospital ◽

Primary Health ◽

The Impact ◽

Rural Patients

This paper reports on the attitudes of a sample of health care providers towards the use of telehealth to support rural patients and integrate rural primary health and urban hospital care. Telehealth and other information technologies hold the promise of improving the quality of care for people in rural and remote areas and for supporting rural primary health care providers. While seemingly beneficial for rural patients, study participants believed that telehealth remains underused and poorly integrated into their practice. In general, participants thought that telehealth is potentially beneficial but places constraints on their activities, and few actually used it. Published literature usually reports either on the success of telehealth pilot projects or initiatives that are well resourced and do not reflect the constraints of routine practice, or has an international focus limiting its relevance to the Australian context. Because of the paucity of systematic and generalisable research into the effects of the routine use of telehealth to support rural patients, it is unclear why health care professionals choose to provide such services or the costs and benefits they incur in doing so. Research and policy initiatives continue to be needed to identify the impact of telehealth within the context of Australian primary health care and to develop strategies to support its use.

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Perceptions of treatment adherence among people with mental health problems and health care professionals

Journal of Advanced Nursing ◽

10.1111/jan.12567 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 71 (4) ◽

pp. 777-788 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Kaisa Kauppi ◽

Heli Hätönen ◽

Clive E. Adams ◽

Maritta Välimäki

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Care ◽

Treatment Adherence ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

Health Problems

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The Use of Patient-Facing Teleconsultations in the National Health Service: Scoping Review

JMIR Medical Informatics ◽

10.2196/15380 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. e15380 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Micheal O'Cathail ◽

M Ananth Sivanandan ◽

Claire Diver ◽

Poulam Patel ◽

Judith Christian

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

National Health Service ◽

Health Service ◽

Outcome Measures ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Care Setting ◽

Care Staff ◽

Health Care Staff ◽

Routine Practice ◽

Over Time

Background The National Health Service (NHS) Long-Term Plan has set out a vision of enabling patients to access digital interactions with health care professionals within 5 years, including by video link. Objective This review aimed to examine the extent and nature of the use of patient-facing teleconsultations within a health care setting in the United Kingdom and what outcome measures have been assessed. Methods We conducted a systematic scoping review of teleconsultation studies following the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology. PubMed, Scopus, the Cochrane Library, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature were searched up to the end of December 2018 for publications that reported on the use of patient-facing teleconsultations in a UK health care setting. Results The search retrieved 3132 publications, of which 101 were included for a full review. Overall, the studies were heterogeneous in design, in the specialty assessed, and reported outcome measures. The technology used for teleconsultations changed over time with earlier studies employing bespoke, often expensive, solutions. Two-thirds of the studies, conducted between 1995 and 2005, used this method. Later studies transitioned to Web-based commercial solutions such as Skype. There were five outcome measures that were assessed: (1) technical feasibility, (2) user satisfaction, (3) clinical effectiveness, (4) cost, (5) logistical and operational considerations. Due to the changing nature of technology over time, there were differing technical issues across the studies. Generally, teleconsultations were acceptable to patients, but this was less consistent among health care professionals. However, among both groups, face-to-face consultations were still seen as the gold standard. A wide range of clinical scenarios found teleconsultations to be clinically useful but potentially limited to more straightforward clinical interactions. Due to the wide array of study types and changes in technology over time, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions on the cost involved. However, cost savings for health care providers have been demonstrated by the goal-directed implementation of teleconsultations. The integration of technology into routine practice represents a complex problem with barriers identified in funding and hospital reimbursement, information technologies infrastructure, and integration into clinicians’ workflow. Conclusions Teleconsultations appear to be safe and effective in the correct clinical situations. Where offered, it is likely that patients will be keen to engage, although teleconsultations should only be offered as an option to support traditional care models rather than replace them outright. Health care staff should be encouraged and supported in using teleconsultations to diversify their practice. Health care organizations need to consider developing a digital technology strategy and implementation groups to assist health care staff to integrate digitally enabled care into routine practice. The introduction of new technologies should be assessed after a set period with service evaluations, including feedback from key stakeholders.

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Patient experiences and implications for consultation outcomes and treatment adherence using mHealth applications among health care professionals (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.12698 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Zuhal Kathy Keeling

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Treatment Adherence ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Clinical Training ◽

Healthcare Services ◽

Coping Behaviors ◽

Services Delivery ◽

And Coping ◽

The Impact ◽

Depth Interviews

BACKGROUND mHealth is a broad term for the use of mobile communication devices for healthcare services delivery. The use of mobile devices by health care professionals (HCPs) has transformed many aspects of clinical training and practice. However, there are still gaps in knowledge concerning patient perception of the use of mHealth technologies by HCP during secondary care consultations. OBJECTIVE To explore the impact on patient experience and implications for consultation outcomes and treatment adherence. Introduction of new technological application into interactions that have very set expectations and roles and possibility for attendant disruption of patient expectations. METHODS This paper explores, via in-depth interviews, patient opinions regarding the usage of mHealth applications by health care professionals (HCPs) during consultations, identifying the paradoxes and coping behaviors to deal with those paradoxes. This qualitative study recruited ten respondents using purposive sampling and snowballing techniques through in-depth interviews. RESULTS The results comprise paradoxes and coping behaviors. They showed that convenience, time savings, accuracy of diagnosis and reduction of errors are the important elements for using mHealth for both HCP and patient. In addition, respondents perceived that mobile health apps facilitate HCP engagement of patients and assist explanations and better patient understanding. Interaction and the quality of the interaction were acknowledged as significant in HCP-patient communication and patient compliance with treatment. CONCLUSIONS To sum, many patients were responsive to the idea of mHealth, both by the doctor and themselves, but wanted to have regulation of use of apps, better involvement and explanations and not have the doctor lose focus on the patient, that is, the feeling of personalized treatment. They also were worried that the HCP might seem to ignore the patient or withdraw from the type of interaction that makes the consultation ‘human.’

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Assisted living in rural areas: aging in blurred landscapes

Qualitative Research in Medicine & Healthcare ◽

10.4081/qrmh.2019.7826 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Bodil H. Blix ◽

Torunn Hamran

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Interest Group ◽

Assisted Living ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Health Care Policy ◽

Family Members ◽

Senior Citizen ◽

Care Needs ◽

Quality Health Care

Here, we explore the experiences and practices of care in the context of assisted living facilities (ALFs) in rural areas from the perspectives of family members, health care professionals, and senior citizen interest group representatives. Specifically, we focus on the potential for ALFs to safeguard and unify the health care policy ambitions of equity, quality, and aging in place. Focus group interviews with health care professionals and interest group representatives and individual interviews with family members were conducted in largely rural Norwegian municipalities. Providing high-quality health care services in people’s homes remains challenging, particularly in rural areas. ALFs have been introduced as a compromise, a home away from home. In rural areas, ALFs are typically localized in community centers. ALFs are neither homes nor nursing homes, and residents possess varying and changing care needs. Several parties experience challenges with respect to safety, evolving care needs, and responsibilities. Moreover, the service allocation and user payment systems may undermine equity. This study indicates that health care authorities should evaluate whether prioritizing assisted living is still suitable for the aging population in rural areas and beyond.

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Older Adults’ Expectations and Experiences With Health care Professionals in Ghana

SAGE Open ◽

10.1177/21582440211040125 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 215824402110401

Author(s):

Paul Alhassan Issahaku ◽

Alhassan Sulemana

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Health Care ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Health Care Services ◽

Health Care Policy ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Care Services ◽

The North ◽

Care Health ◽

Make Health Care

By the year 2050, over 6 million of Ghana’s population will be people aged 60 years and above. Because of increased health challenges that accompany aging, older Ghanaians have health needs to address communicable and chronic non-communicable diseases. This suggests that now into the future, older adults in Ghana will have increased contact with health care professionals. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore older adults’ expectations and experiences with health care professionals to generate information that will shape health care policy and service delivery. Interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 23 persons aged 60 years and above from the North and South of Ghana. The transcribed data were imported to NVivo software to aid with analysis of the data. An inductive approach ta data analysis was used, drawing from thematic analyses procedures. Three key findings emerged from the study. These include (a) noncompassionate care—health professionals were neglectful, inattentive, discriminatory, and stigmatizing toward participants; (b) disrespectful attitude—professionals showed disrespect by shouting or yelling, making participants feel invisible, or not distinguishing participants from younger patients; and (c) a better way to treat us—participants called for compassion, patience, respect, honesty, and priority attention from health care professionals. The study contributes to literature on older adults’ experiences with health care professionals and suggests to health policy makers and health care professionals to consider older adults’ care expectations to make health care services elder-friendly.

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Developing Community Ontologies in User Driven Healthcare

User-Driven Healthcare and Narrative Medicine ◽

10.4018/978-1-60960-097-6.ch022 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 310-327

Author(s):

Jane Fitzpatrick ◽

Willie Ako

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Promotion ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Health Care Policy ◽

Social Science Research ◽

Indigenous Communities ◽

Malaria Prevention ◽

Health Experiences ◽

Policies And Programs ◽

User Perspectives

In developing equitable health systems, the World Health Organisation (2005) advocates strengthening the repository of social science research to inform policy decisions affecting health care. The players include the patient, family and community members and health care professionals. This requires a genuine engagement with community perspective on health issues. This chapter examines how health care professionals can engage in understanding user perspectives in order to develop effective health care policies and programs. This case study explores how involving an indigenous community enabled them to develop an effective health promotion and malaria prevention initiative in a remote rural community in PNG It draws on participant narratives to explore user perspectives and understandings of the health impact of a focused health promotion and malaria prevention initiative. It illustrates that poverty dominates their health experiences. The chapter illustrates how the development of a collaborative empowerment approach to research can have a significant impact on the strategies members of indigenous communities can develop in order to optimise their health experiences. It argues that in order to develop effective approaches to health care policy and design health needs to be appreciated in the context of lived experiences of those affected.

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The Tablet-Based, Engagement, Assessment, Support, and Sign-Posting (EASSi) Tool for Facilitating and Structuring Sexual Well-Being Conversations in Routine Prostate Cancer Care: Mixed-Methods Study (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.20137 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Eilís McCaughan ◽

Carrie Flannagan ◽

Kader Parahoo ◽

John Connaghan ◽

Roma Maguire ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Prostate Cancer ◽

Health Care ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Cancer Care ◽

Well Being ◽

Routine Practice ◽

Qualitative Synthesis ◽

Semistructured Interviews ◽

Sexual Concerns ◽

Engagement Assessment

BACKGROUND Long-term side-effects associated with different prostate cancer treatment approaches are common. Sexual challenges are the most frequently occurring issues and can result in increased psychological morbidity. It is recognized that barriers to communication can make initiating discussions around sexual concerns in routine practice difficult. Health care professionals need to routinely initiate conversations, effectively engage with patients, and assess needs in order to provide essential support. One proposed method that could support health care professionals to do this involves the use of prompts or structured frameworks to guide conversations. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to assess feasibility, acceptability, and satisfaction with the tablet-based Engagement, Assessment, Support, and Sign-posting (EASSi) tool designed to facilitate and structure sexual well-being discussions in routine prostate cancer care. METHODS Health care professionals (n=8) used the EASSi tool during 89 posttreatment appointments. Quantitative data were recorded based on program usage and surveys completed by health care professionals and patients. Qualitative data exploring perceptions on use of the tool were gathered using semistructured interviews with all health care professionals (n=8) and a sample of patients (n=10). RESULTS Surveys were completed by health care professionals immediately following each appointment (n=89, 100%). Postal surveys were returned by 59 patients (66%). Health care professionals and patients reported that the tool helped facilitate discussions (81/89, 91% and 50/59, 85%, respectively) and that information provided was relevant (82/89, 92% and 50/59, 85%, respectively). The mean conversation duration was 6.01 minutes (SD 2.91). Qualitative synthesis identified the tool’s ability to initiate and structure discussions, improve the “depth” of conversations, and normalize sexual concerns. CONCLUSIONS The EASSi tool was appropriate and acceptable for use in practice and provided a flexible approach to facilitate routine brief conversations and deliver essential sexual well-being support. Further work will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of using the tablet-based tool in prostate cancer care settings.

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