%0 Journal Article
%T Using Information and Communication Technology in Home Care for Communication between Patients, Family Members, and Healthcare Professionals: A Systematic Review
%A Birgitta Lindberg
%A Carina Nilsson
%A Daniel Zotterman
%A Siv S£¿derberg
%A Lisa Sk£¿r
%J International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/461829
%X Introduction. Information and communication technology (ICT) are becoming a natural part in healthcare both for delivering and giving accessibility to healthcare for people with chronic illness living at home. Aim. The aim was to review existing studies describing the use of ICT in home care for communication between patients, family members, and healthcare professionals. Methods. A review of studies was conducted that identified 1,276 studies. A selection process and quality appraisal were conducted, which finally resulted in 107 studies. Results. The general results offer an overview of characteristics of studies describing the use of ICT applications in home care and are summarized in areas including study approach, quality appraisal, publications data, terminology used for defining the technology, and disease diagnosis. The specific results describe how communication with ICT was performed in home care and the benefits and drawbacks with the use of ICT. Results were predominated by positive responses in the use of ICT. Conclusion. The use of ICT applications in home care is an expanding research area, with a variety of ICT tools used that could increase accessibility to home care. Using ICT can lead to people living with chronic illnesses gaining control of their illness that promotes self-care. 1. Introduction Due to an ageing population and a shortage of hospital beds, it has become a challenge to find new ways to support and care for people with chronic illness living at home. Living with chronic illness changes the lives of those affected, who are often in need of support and nursing care in their homes [1¨C3]. eHealth has the potential to become a means of providing good care at home [4], which is especially challenging with regard to this emerging field [5]. eHealth refers to information and communication technology (ICT) tools and services for health, whether the tools are used behind the scenes by healthcare professionals or directly by patients and their relatives [6]. ICT tools can be used to access a wide variety of technological solutions for communication, including text messaging, gathering and monitoring data, diagnosis and treatment at distances, and retrieving electronic health records [5, 7]. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) [8], eHealth is used in the healthcare for transmission of digital data, including data stored and retrieved electronically to support healthcare, both at the local site and at a distance. E-Health includes the interaction between patients and health service providers or peer-to-peer
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijta/2013/461829/