JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Due to the complexities of advanced illnesses and their treatments, it can be difficult for patients to maintain their quality of life. Telemedicine interventions in chronic disease management engage patients in their care, provide continuous follow-up by their healthcare providers, identify symptoms earlier, and respond quickly to illness-related decline. Here we report our perspectives and workflow related to adapting our HumanITcare platform to the Palliative Care setting. We aimed to improve follow-up and prevent repeated admissions due to the worsening of symptoms by developing an intelligent remote patient monitoring system for the registration and intensity of relevant symptoms with the collaboration of expert professionals in advanced chronic diseases and a specific development team for healthcare applications. Our efforts resulted in an easy-to-use application that included specific management elements for patients and a web application for professionals, pilot-tested with 60 patients. It was accepted well by patients. Incorporating an intelligent remote patient monitoring system in clinical practice for patients in palliative care can improve access to health services and provide more information to professionals.