Digital Health Tools for Managing Noncommunicable Diseases During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perspectives of Patients and Caregivers

Background A reduction in the number of face-to-face medical examinations conducted for patients with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to health care professionals quickly adopting different strategies to communicate with and monitor their patients. Such strategies include the increased use of digital health tools. However, patient preferences, privacy concerns, a lack of regulations, overregulation, and insufficient evidence on the efficacy of digital health tools may have hampered the potential positive benefits of using such tools to manage NCDs. Objective This viewpoint aims to discuss the views of an advisory board of patient and caregiver association members. Specifically, we aim to present this advisory board’s view on the role of digital health tools in managing patients with NCDs during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and to identify future directions based on patients’ perspectives. Methods As an initiative under the NCD Partnership (PARTners in Ncds Engage foR building Strategies to improve Healthy ageing In Patients) model of Upjohn, a web-based advisory board of patient and caregiver advocates was held on July 28, 2020, to bring together key stakeholders from public and private sectors. Results The following key themes emerged: (1) technology developers should understand that the goals of patients may differ from those of health care professionals and other stakeholders; (2) patients, health care professionals, caregivers, and other end users need to be involved in the development of digital health tools at the earliest phase possible, to guarantee usability, efficacy, and adoption; (3) digital health tools must be better tailored to people with complex conditions, such as multimorbidity, older age, and cognitive or sensory impairment; and (4) some patients do not want or are unable to use digital health care tools, so adequate alternatives should always be available. Conclusions There was consensus that public-private partnership models, such as the Upjohn NCD Partnership, can be effective models that foster innovation by integrating multiple perspectives (eg, patients’ perspectives) into the design, development, and implementation of digital and nondigital health tools, with the main overall objective of improving the life of patients with NCDs.

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Digital Health Tools For The Management Of Non-Communicable Diseases During And After The Covid-19 Pandemic: Perspectives From Patients And Caregivers (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.25652 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Alessandro Monaco ◽

Katie Palmer ◽

Nicolaj Holm Ravn Faber ◽

Irene Kohler ◽

Mitchell Silva ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Digital Health ◽

Communicable Diseases ◽

Advisory Board ◽

Design Development ◽

Multiple Perspectives ◽

Public And Private ◽

Non Communicable Diseases ◽

Partnership Model ◽

Public And Private Sector ◽

Effective Models

BACKGROUND The reduction of face-to-face medical examinations for patients with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to healthcare professionals (HCPs) quickly adopting different strategies to communicate and monitor their patients, including the increased use of digital health tools. However, patient preferences, privacy concerns, lack of regulations or over-regulation, and insufficient evidence on the efficacy of these methods may have hampered the potential positive benefits of using such tools to manage NCDs. OBJECTIVE The current paper aims to discuss the output of an Advisory Board; specifically, to present the view of patients and caregivers on the role of digital health tools during and after the COVID- 19 pandemic for managing NCD patients, and identify future directions from the patients’ perspectives. METHODS As an initiative under the NCD Partnership model of Upjohn, a virtual Advisory Board with patient and caregiver advocates was held on July 28th 2020 to bring together key stakeholders from the public and private sector. RESULTS Several key themes emerged: 1) technology developers should understand that the goals of patients may differ from HCPs and other stakeholders' perspectives; 2) patients, HCPs, caregivers, and other end users need to be involved in the development of digital health solutions in the earliest phase possible to guarantee usability, efficacy, and adoption; 3) tools must be better tailored for people with complex conditions such as multimorbidity, older age, and cognitive or sensory impairment; 4) some patients do not want (or are unable) to utilize digital healthcare solutions, so adequate alternatives should always be available. CONCLUSIONS There was consensus that public-private partnership models such as the Upjohn NCD Partnership, can be effective models to foster innovation by synthetizing multiple perspectives, including patients, in the design, development, and implementation of digital (and non-digital) health tools, with the main overall objective of improving the life of NCD patients. CLINICALTRIAL N/A

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How Women Use Digital Technologies for Health: Qualitative Interview and Focus Group Study (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.11481 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Deborah Lupton ◽

Sarah Maslen

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Focus Groups ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Online Social Networks ◽

Digital Health ◽

Family Members ◽

Digital Technologies ◽

Face To Face ◽

Health Technologies ◽

Health Related

BACKGROUND A range of digital technologies are available to lay people to find, share, and generate health-related information. Few studies have directed attention specifically to how women are using these technologies from the diverse array available to them. Even fewer have focused on Australian women’s use of digital health. OBJECTIVE The Australian Women and Digital Health Project aimed to investigate which types of digital technologies women used regularly for health-related purposes and which they found most helpful and useful. Qualitative methods—semistructured interviews and focus groups—were employed to shed light on the situated complexities of the participants’ enactments of digital health technologies. The project adopted a feminist new materialism theoretical perspective, focusing on the affordances, relational connections, and affective forces that came together to open up or close off the agential capacities generated with and through these enactments. METHODS The project comprised two separate studies including a total of 66 women. In study 1, 36 women living in the city of Canberra took part in face-to-face interviews and focus groups, while study 2 involved telephone interviews with 30 women from other areas of Australia. RESULTS The affordances of search engines to locate health information and websites and social media platforms for providing information and peer support were highly used and valued. Affective forces such as the desire for trust, motivation, empowerment, reassurance, control, care, and connection emerged in the participants’ accounts. Agential capacities generated with and through digital health technologies included the capacity to seek and generate information and create a better sense of knowledge and expertise about bodies, illness, and health care, including the women’s own bodies and health, that of their families and friends, and that of their often anonymous online social networks. The participants referred time and again to appreciating the feelings of agency and control that using digital health technologies afforded them. When the technologies failed to work as expected, these agential capacities were not realized. Women responded with feelings of frustration, disappointment, and annoyance, leading them to become disenchanted with the possibilities of the digital technologies they had tried. CONCLUSIONS The findings demonstrate the nuanced and complex ways in which the participants were engaging with and contributing to online sources of information and using these sources together with face-to-face encounters with doctors and other health care professionals and friends and family members. They highlight the lay forms of expertise that the women had developed in finding, assessing, and creating health knowledges. The study also emphasized the key role that many women play in providing advice and health care for family members not only as digitally engaged patients but also as digitally engaged carers.

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Potentially Inappropriate Medications Use in A Population of Iraqi Geriatric Outpatients According to Beers Criteria

International Journal of Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance ◽

10.25258/ijpqa.10.2.18 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (02) ◽

Author(s):

Ola Albaghdadi ◽

Salam , Mohammad Hassan Morteza, Firas A Ahjel ◽

Mohammad Hassan Morteza ◽

Firas Aziz Rahi

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Public Health Issue ◽

Beers Criteria ◽

Potentially Inappropriate Medications ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Face To Face ◽

Inappropriate Drugs ◽

Elderly Outpatients ◽

Inappropriate Medications

Aims: Elderly in Iraq kept suffering multiple burdens, as they are a truly fragile and vulnerable segment. A major public health issue among elderly is adverse drug reactions. This study is aimed at contributing in overcoming this treatment gap by determining the prevalence of inappropriate medications used by a group of Iraqi elderly outpatients. Methods: A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study was conducted in a sample of 85 Iraqi elderly aged ≥65 years of either gender. Participants had face-to-face interviews to answer a comprehensive questionnaire. Each drug taken by the patient was evaluated according to Beers criteria. Results: Females constituted 45.9% of the total. The average age was 69.9 years (± 4.6). Nearly 30% of the patients had 3 different diseases, and 17.8% had ≥4 different ones, with cardiovascular diseases were the most prevalent. Polypharmacy was notably identified in 47.1% of the total studied population. Twenty-eight out of 85 patients did not know the actual reason of taking at least one of their medications, and 42% were not taking their drugs as directed. Remarkably, 43.5% of patients were recognized as taking at least one medication to be avoided in elderly people according to the Beers criteria. The most common inappropriate drugs were glyburide, and proton-pump inhibitors. Conclusion: There was an obvious absence of any role of pharmacists in the health care system for our studied population. Health care professionals are encouraged to review the medications prescribed for geriatric patients using updated safety guidelines to prevent the risks associated with potentially inappropriate medications.

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Experiences of Volunteers Supporting Parents Following a Fatal Fetal Anomaly Diagnosis

Qualitative Health Research ◽

10.1177/1049732320987834 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 104973232098783

Author(s):

Stacey Power ◽

Keelin O’Donoghue ◽

Sarah Meaney

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Peer Support ◽

Thematic Analysis ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Fetal Anomaly ◽

Voluntary Organizations ◽

Face To Face ◽

Bereaved Parents ◽

Collaborative Working ◽

And Training

Ireland has had a reliance on voluntary groups to provide peer-to-peer bereavement support. The aim of this study was to explore volunteers’, within these voluntary groups, experiences of supporting parents following a fatal fetal anomaly diagnosis. Purposive sampling was used to recruit volunteers ( n = 17) and face-to-face interviews undertaken. NVivo12 was utilized to assist in the thematic analysis of the data. Five themes; “motivation for altruistic acts,” “being challenged,” “value of education and training,” “supporting volunteers to support others,” and “it is not a sprint, it is a marathon” were identified. Volunteers felt comfortable in their peer-support role but found the lack of knowledge regarding newly implemented termination of pregnancy (TOP) services challenging. The importance of education/training was identified, emphasizing the need for collaboration with health care professionals and other voluntary organizations for support. The findings illustrate the need for collaborative working between health care professionals and volunteers to assist them in supporting bereaved parents.

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The role of collaborative, multistakeholder partnerships in reshaping the health management of patients with noncommunicable diseases during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

Aging Clinical and Experimental Research ◽

10.1007/s40520-021-01922-y ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Alessandro Monaco ◽

Amaia Casteig Blanco ◽

Mark Cobain ◽

Elisio Costa ◽

Nick Guldemond ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Management ◽

Digital Health ◽

Patient Empowerment ◽

Advisory Board ◽

Noncommunicable Diseases ◽

Informal Carer ◽

Economic Support ◽

Health And Social Care ◽

Care Models ◽

Multistakeholder Partnerships

Abstract Background Policies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic have disrupted the screening, diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of noncommunicable (NCD) patients while affecting NCD prevention and risk factor control. Aims To discuss how the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic affected the health management of NCD patients, identify which aspects should be carried forward into future NCD management, and propose collaborative efforts among public–private institutions to effectively shape NCD care models. Methods The NCD Partnership, a collaboration between Upjohn and the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing, held a virtual Advisory Board in July 2020 with multiple stakeholders; healthcare professionals (HCPs), policymakers, researchers, patient and informal carer advocacy groups, patient empowerment organizations, and industry experts. Results The Advisory Board identified barriers to NCD care during the COVID-19 pandemic in four areas: lack of NCD management guidelines; disruption to integrated care and shift from hospital-based NCD care to more community and primary level care; infodemics and a lack of reliable health information for patients and HCPs on how to manage NCDs; lack of availability, training, standardization, and regulation of digital health tools. Conclusions Multistakeholder partnerships can promote swift changes to NCD prevention and patient care. Intra- and inter-communication between all stakeholders should be facilitated involving all players in the development of clinical guidelines and digital health tools, health and social care restructuring, and patient support in the short-, medium- and long-term future. A comprehensive response to NCDs should be delivered to improve patient outcomes by providing strategic, scientific, and economic support.

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A Roadmap to Inform Development, Validation and Approval of Digital Mobility Outcomes: The Mobilise-D Approach

Digital Biomarkers ◽

10.1159/000512513 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 13-27 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lynn Rochester ◽

Claudia Mazzà ◽

Arne Mueller ◽

Brian Caulfield ◽

Marie McCarthy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Clinical Trials ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Digital Health ◽

Disease Status ◽

Proximal Femoral Fracture ◽

Chronic Obstructive ◽

Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽

Physical Mobility ◽

High Level

Health care has had to adapt rapidly to COVID-19, and this in turn has highlighted a pressing need for tools to facilitate remote visits and monitoring. Digital health technology, including body-worn devices, offers a solution using digital outcomes to measure and monitor disease status and provide outcomes meaningful to both patients and health care professionals. Remote monitoring of physical mobility is a prime example, because mobility is among the most advanced modalities that can be assessed digitally and remotely. Loss of mobility is also an important feature of many health conditions, providing a read-out of health as well as a target for intervention. Real-world, continuous digital measures of mobility (digital mobility outcomes or DMOs) provide an opportunity for novel insights into health care conditions complementing existing mobility measures. Accepted and approved DMOs are not yet widely available. The need for large collaborative efforts to tackle the critical steps to adoption is widely recognised. Mobilise-D is an example. It is a multidisciplinary consortium of 34 institutions from academia and industry funded through the European Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking. Members of Mobilise-D are collaborating to address the critical steps for DMOs to be adopted in clinical trials and ultimately health care. To achieve this, the consortium has developed a roadmap to inform the development, validation and approval of DMOs in Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and recovery from proximal femoral fracture. Here we aim to describe the proposed approach and provide a high-level view of the ongoing and planned work of the Mobilise-D consortium. Ultimately, Mobilise-D aims to stimulate widespread adoption of DMOs through the provision of device agnostic software, standards and robust validation in order to bring digital outcomes from concept to use in clinical trials and health care.

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Advocacy for a Digital Oral Health That Leaves No One Behind

JDR Clinical & Translational Research ◽

10.1177/23800844211026610 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 238008442110266

Author(s):

N. Giraudeau ◽

B. Varenne

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Oral Health ◽

Access To Health Care ◽

Universal Access ◽

Digital Health ◽

World Health ◽

Noncommunicable Diseases ◽

Central Component ◽

Health Coverage ◽

The Impact

During the first wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the lockdown enforced led to considerable disruption to the activities of dental services, even leading to closures. To mitigate the impact of the lockdowns, systems were quickly put in place in most countries to respond to dental emergencies, giving priority to distance screening, advice to patients by remote means, and treatment of urgent cases while ensuring continuous care. Digital health was widely adopted as a central component of this new approach, leading to new practices and tools, which in turn demonstrated its potential, limitations, and possible excesses. Political leaders must become aware of the universal availability of digital technology and make use of it as an additional, safe means of providing services to the public. In view of the multiple uses of digital technologies in health—health literacy, teaching, prevention, early detection, therapeutics, and public health policies—deployment of a comprehensive program of digital oral health will require the adoption of a multifaceted approach. Digital tools should be designed to reduce, not increase, inequalities in access to health care. It offers an opportunity to improve healthy behavior, lower risk factors common to oral diseases and others noncommunicable diseases, and contribute to reducing oral health inequalities. It can accelerate the implementation of universal health coverage and help achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, leaving no one behind. Digital oral health should be one of the pillars of oral health care after COVID-19. Universal access to digital oral health should be promoted globally. The World Health Organization’s mOralHealth program aims to do that. Knowledge Transfer Statement: This position paper could be used by oral health stakeholders to convince their government to implement digital oral health program.

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Do Health-Care Students Know About Chemical Biological Radioactive Nuclear Weapons?

Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness ◽

10.1017/dmp.2021.307 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-6

Author(s):

Cagla Yigitbas

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Nuclear Weapons ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Field Education ◽

Health Care Education ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Health Care Students ◽

Face To Face ◽

Survey Form ◽

Ongoing Training

Abstract Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the level of knowledge of students receiving different levels of health-care education (doctors, nurses, paramedics) on chemical, biological, radioactive, and nuclear weapons (CBRNW). Methods: This study was designed as a qualitative, descriptive, and cross-sectional research. The study reached 87.68% of the population. A survey form was created by the researcher in line with the literature. Ethical permission and verbal consents were obtained. The data were collected by face-to-face interviews. Results: It was observed that there was no difference between the enrolled departments, that the participants had very low levels of knowledge on the subject despite considering it a likely threat for Turkey, and that they thought the public and the health-care professionals in this field had insufficient knowledge. Sex, age, and field education were the variables that created a difference. Conclusion: Training regarding CBRNW should be further questioned and individuals should receive ongoing training to increase and update their knowledge and skills.

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Interpreting in Sexual and Reproductive Health Consults With Burma Born Refugees Post Settlement: Insights From an Australian Qualitative Study

Frontiers in Communication ◽

10.3389/fcomm.2021.633855 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

Author(s):

Amita Tuteja ◽

Elisha Riggs ◽

Lena Sanci ◽

Lester Mascarenhas ◽

Di VanVliet ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Best Practice ◽

Qualitative Methodology ◽

Future Research ◽

Care Providers ◽

Face To Face ◽

Consultation Room ◽

Privacy And Confidentiality

Interpreters work with health care professionals to overcome language challenges during sexual and reproductive (SRH) health discussions with people from refugee backgrounds. Disclosures of traumatic refugee journeys and sexual assault combined with refugees’ unfamiliarity with Western health concepts and service provision can increase the interpreting challenges. Published literature provides general guidance on working with interpreters in primary care but few studies focus on interpretation in refugee SRH consults. To address this, we explored the challenges faced by providers of refugee services (PRS) during interpreter mediated SRH consultations with Burma born refugees post settlement in Australia. We used qualitative methodology and interviewed 29 PRS involved with migrants from Burma including general practitioners, nurses, interpreters, bilingual social workers, and administrative staff. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and subjected to thematic analysis following independent coding by the members of the research team. Key themes were formulated after a consensus discussion. The theme of “interpretation related issues” was identified with six sub-themes including 1) privacy and confidentiality 2) influence of interpreter’s identity 3) gender matching of the interpreter 4) family member vs. professional interpreters 5) telephone vs. face-to-face interpreting 6) setting up the consultation room. When faced with these interpretation related challenges in providing SRH services to people from refugee backgrounds, health care providers combine best practice advice, experience-based knowledge and “mundane creativity” to adapt to the needs of the specific patients. The complexity of interpreted SRH consultations in refugee settings needs to be appreciated in making good judgments when choosing the best way to optimize communication. This paper identifies the critical elements which could be incorporated when making such a judgement. Future research should include the experiences of refugee patients to provide a more comprehensive perspective.

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PERANAN SERVICE QUALITY TERHADAP PATIENT REVISIT INTENTION MELALUI PATIENT SATISFACTION PADA RUMAH SAKIT UMUM DAN RUMAH SAKIT SWASTA TIPE B

Jurnal Manajemen dan Pemasaran Jasa ◽

10.25105/jmpj.v1i1.533 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 49

Author(s):

Febry Adhiana

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Patient Satisfaction ◽

Service Quality ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Public Hospitals ◽

Human Beings ◽

Private Hospitals ◽

Public And Private ◽

Revisit Intention ◽

Public And Private Hospitals

Backg of nd: the increasing of awareness in health care by Indonesian people especially in Jakart Healthcare that health care professionals are highly dependent on each other to provide and coordi ate services of high value for human beings. Patients usually prefer to go to private hospitals hoping tc receive high service quality. But in fact, public hospitals have a good quality service also becau e ft is supported by the government. Object ve to compare service quality, patient satisfaction and patient revisit intention of public and privatE hospitals. Resea h design: this research applies to public and private hospitals in Jakarta and questionnaires were s read away to 97 respondents or patients from some public and private hospitals in Jakarta by usi g purpose sampling. Findin s: There are no differences between private and public hospitals in service quality, patient satisf Um and patient revisit intention. Finally the implications of the results are highlighted for health :are managers.

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