Intelligent Monitoring Systems applied to Health. Opinion of the actors involved: patients, carers and professionals. TeNDER Study - 875325

Cristina María Lozano Hernandez, Rodrigo Medina García, Araceli Garrido Barral, María Del Canto De Hoyos Alonso, César Augusto Minue Lorenzo, Teresa Sanz Cuesta, Elena Polentinos Castro, María Isabel Del Cura González, Grupo Tender 875325

Keywords: Telemonitoring , Chronic Disease , Caregivers, Primary care

Background:

Intelligent monitoring systems can facilitate the follow-up of chronic patients by healthcare professionals. By means of sensors for movement, location, voice detection and facial expressions, changes in health status can be recognised. Before implementing the devices discussed above, it is necessary to get feedback on their usefulness from all the actors involved.

Research questions:

¿Qué opinan pacientes, cuidadores y profesionales, sobre la utilidad de los Sistemas Inteligentes de Monitorización? To determine, from the opinion of patients, caregivers and professionals, the usefulness of Intelligent Monitoring Systems in cardiovascular disease, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

Method:

Cross-sectional descriptive observational study in patients (with cardiovascular disease, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease), caregivers and health professionals in primary care centres. Each functionality was explored with a Likert scale (1-5), the main variable was opinion through a score (9-45 points); in addition, sociodemographic data, health status and technology use were collected. Descriptive and bivariate analyses and multilevel linear regression models were performed.

Results:

20 patients (55% male), 21 caregivers (85.7% female) and 13 health professionals (84.6% female) were surveyed; their mean age was 77.5(1.5), 59.1(2.7) and 44.5(4.1), respectively. Overall, the lowest mean points on usefulness were reported by patients 23.9(2.1), followed by caregivers 34(2.1) and professionals 38.9(1.1). The most useful functionality reported by patients was "recording of constants" 3.3(0.3); for caregivers "smart calendar" 4.6(0.2); for professionals "external location" and "adherence" 4.7(0.1). Younger age was linked to higher scores for patients (-1.18; 95%CI:-2;-0.39) and caregivers (-0.43; 95%CI:-0.77;-0.09); while for professionals, professional category was linked (5.57; 95%CI:1.43;9.70).

Conclusions:

The usefulness of the Smart Monitoring Systems for the chronic patients studied is rated by the patients themselves as not very useful, while caregivers and professionals rate it as useful. The older the patients and carers are, the lower the perceived usefulness. Nursing professionals rate its use as more useful than medical professionals.

Points for discussion:

Are older people and their carers ready to use Smart Monitoring Systems?

As healthcare professionals, what do we think would be useful for us from the incorporation of Smart Monitoring Systems in chronically ill patients?

European funded projects involving older patients with chronic diseases and everyday technologies are on the rise. What are our views on this reality as primary care health professionals?

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