Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) applied in palliative care: topic review

Abstract

Aim: To check the tools used on the e - health researches on the palliative care item on the five last years. Method: A bibliographic review was carried out in PubMed, Scopus and Bireme databases on the subject of palliative care, e-health and costs. Results: The use of the Information technologies, the majority of the surveys find favorably the use of technology in the users who receive palliative care, since it facilitates the evaluation and handling symptoms. It improves too the communication between patients and health professionals, reducing in some cases de geographic displacements and decreasing the associated cost to the attention of these patients. Conclusion: E-health implementation through different intervention models has proven to be valuable for individuals with advance disease in palliative care, offering potential educational and the optimization of time and means for patients and caregivers, which improve the contact with the health professionals.