Digital healthcare in COPD management: a narrative review on the advantages, pitfalls, and need for further research.
Ther Adv Respir Dis
; 16: 17534666221075493, 2022.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1724306
ABSTRACT
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality despite current treatment strategies which focus on smoking cessation, pulmonary rehabilitation, and symptomatic relief. A focus of COPD care is to encourage self-management, particularly during COVID-19, where much face-to-face care has been reduced or ceased. Digital health solutions may offer affordable and scalable solutions to support COPD patient education and self-management, such solutions could improve clinical outcomes and expand service reach for limited additional cost. However, optimal ways to deliver digital medicine are still in development, and there are a number of important considerations for clinicians, commissioners, and patients to ensure successful implementation of digitally augmented care. In this narrative review, we discuss advantages, pitfalls, and future prospects of digital healthcare, which offer a variety of tools including self-management plans, education videos, inhaler training videos, feedback to patients and healthcare professionals (HCPs), exacerbation monitoring, and pulmonary rehabilitation. We discuss the key issues with sustaining patient and HCP engagement and limiting attrition of use, interoperability with devices, integration into healthcare systems, and ensuring inclusivity and accessibility. We explore the essential areas of research beyond determining safety and efficacy to understand the acceptability of digital healthcare solutions to patients, clinicians, and healthcare systems, and hence ways to improve this and sustain engagement. Finally, we explore the regulatory challenges to ensure quality and engagement and effective integration into current healthcare systems and care pathways, while maintaining patients' autonomy and privacy. Understanding and addressing these issues and successful incorporation of an acceptable, simple, scalable, affordable, and future-proof digital solution into healthcare systems could help remodel global chronic disease management and fractured healthcare systems to provide best patient care and optimisation of healthcare resources to meet the global burden and unmet clinical need of COPD.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Prognostic study
/
Reviews
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Ther Adv Respir Dis
Journal subject:
Pulmonary Disease (Specialty)
/
Therapeutics
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
17534666221075493
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