Information and communication technology-based interventions for chronic diseases consultation: Scoping review

• Published in: International journal of medical informatics (Shannon, Ireland) Ireland), 2022-07, Vol.163, p.104784-104784, Article 104784
• Main Authors: Randine, Pietro, Sharma, Aakash, Hartvigsen, Gunnar, Johansen, Håvard D., Årsand, Eirik
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chronic disease; Consultation; eHealth; ICT; mHealth; Privacy; Security; Sensors; Telehealth; Wearable devices
• ISSN: 1386-5056; 1872-8243; 1872-8243
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2022.104784

•Today’s ICT support an expansion of the medical consultation model.•ICT interventions including informal caregivers, parents, next of kin are limited.•Smartphone apps are the most used ICTs regardless of chronic disease.•Half of the smartphone apps were restricted to only one mobile operating system.•ICT interventions have limited compliance with regulations such as HIPPA or GDPR. Medical consultations are often critical meetings between patients and health personnel to provide treatment, health-management advice, and exchange of information, especially for people living with chronic diseases. The adoption of patient-operated Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) allows the patients to actively participate in their consultation and treatment. The consultation can be divided into three different phases: before, during, and after the meeting. The difference is identified by the activities in preparation (before), the meeting, conducted either physically or in other forms of non-face-to-face interaction (during), and the follow-up activities after the meeting (after). Consultations can be supported by various ICT-based interventions, often referred to as eHealth, mHealth, telehealth, or telemedicine. Nevertheless, the use of ICTs in healthcare settings is often accompanied by security and privacy challenges due to the sensitive nature of health information and the regulatory requirements associated with storing and processing sensitive information. This scoping review aims to map the existing knowledge and identify gaps in research about ICT-based interventions for chronic diseases consultations. The review objective is guided by three research questions: (1) which ICTs are used by people with chronic diseases, health personnel, and others before, during, and after consultations; (2) which type of information is managed by these ICTs; and (3) how are security and privacy issues addressed? We performed a literature search in ACM, IEEE, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science and included primary studies published between January 2015 and June 2020 that used ICT before, during, and/or after a consultation for chronic diseases. This review presents and discusses the findings from the included publications structured around the three research questions. Twenty-four studies met the inclusion criteria. Only five studies reported the use of ICTs in all three phases: before, during, and after consultations. The main ICTs identified were smartphone application