THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TELEMEDICINE USE TO IMPROVE PATIENT OUTCOME IN CANCER PATIENTS: A NARRATIVE REVIEW

ANGELA JUDHIA ARKANDHI, apt. Woro Harjaningsih, Sp. FRS.

2021 | Skripsi | S1 FARMASI

Cancer is known for its high mortality rate due to the various aspects in need of attention during treatment and due to being a chronic disease. Cancer needs long term treatments that are time-consuming and mainly cause an economic burden for its patients. This review aims to describe the characteristics of the articles in this study, explore the different types of interventions and its contents that can effectively improve patient outcomes as well as describe the effectiveness of telemedicine use in improving patient outcomes. This study was a narrative review with article retrieval done through PubMed and Scopus databases using the Boolean search technique with appointed keywords. Articles were assorted according to the inclusion (populations are cancer patients, the intervention involves the role of pharmacist, articles are in the form of RCTs, systematic reviews, meta-analysis, interventional studies or feasibility studies, mostly analysed clinical outcomes or other aspects related to patient outcomes, articles were published between 2015-2021 and were either in English or Bahasa Indonesia) and exclusion criteria (the article is not in full text, mainly involves non-pharmacist health professionals and discusses the technology that has not been implemented for patient use) described in this study. A result of 26 articles was analysed in this study. Studies included were mostly in the form of RCTs and had an intervention duration of 6 months or more. A majority of the articles were researched in several countries, had 100 or more respondents, and did not focus on cancer-specific interventions. The respondents were mostly 18 years or older, female dominant, and were college graduates or higher. The most effective form of telemedicine is mHealth followed by web and internet-based interventions, each group of interventions had its own specific content and characteristics. The most feasible activity to be replaced by technology is monitoring and follow up. Twenty-five articles concluded that telemedicine provided a beneficial and effective improvement for patient outcomes. This result can be used as an aspect of consideration for future policies of telemedicine use in Indonesia.

Cancer is known for its high mortality rate due to the various aspects in need of attention during treatment and due to being a chronic disease. Cancer needs long term treatments that are time-consuming and mainly cause an economic burden for its patients. This review aims to describe the characteristics of the articles in this study, explore the different types of interventions and its contents that can effectively improve patient outcomes as well as describe the effectiveness of telemedicine use in improving patient outcomes. This study was a narrative review with article retrieval done through PubMed and Scopus databases using the Boolean search technique with appointed keywords. Articles were assorted according to the inclusion (populations are cancer patients, the intervention involves the role of pharmacist, articles are in the form of RCTs, systematic reviews, meta-analysis, interventional studies or feasibility studies, mostly analysed clinical outcomes or other aspects related to patient outcomes, articles were published between 2015-2021 and were either in English or Bahasa Indonesia) and exclusion criteria (the article is not in full text, mainly involves non-pharmacist health professionals and discusses the technology that has not been implemented for patient use) described in this study. A result of 26 articles was analysed in this study. Studies included were mostly in the form of RCTs and had an intervention duration of 6 months or more. A majority of the articles were researched in several countries, had 100 or more respondents, and did not focus on cancer-specific interventions. The respondents were mostly 18 years or older, female dominant, and were college graduates or higher. The most effective form of telemedicine is mHealth followed by web and internet-based interventions, each group of interventions had its own specific content and characteristics. The most feasible activity to be replaced by technology is monitoring and follow up. Twenty-five articles concluded that telemedicine provided a beneficial and effective improvement for patient outcomes. This result can be used as an aspect of consideration for future policies of telemedicine use in Indonesia.

Kata Kunci : Telemedicine, Telepharmacy, Cancer, Oncology, Knowledge, Clinical Outcome, Adherence, Satisfaction, Symptoms