An Overview of Telemedicine in Palliative Care of Patients at Home

Palliative care is a type of medical care that focused on improving the quality of life of people with chronic diseases, and deals with disease symptoms, psychological and medical needs, spiritual well-being, and care planning. In palliative care, telemedicine can be considered to improve the quality of care at home. Despite the expansion of this technology and the high satisfaction of patients, it also has disadvantages. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the advantages and disadvantages of using telemedicine in palliative care of patients at home.

This review article was carried out by searching the databases of Elsevier, PubMed, SID, and Magiran between 2010 and 2022 using the keywords of Telemedicine, Palliative care, and Remote Consultation. A total of 36 articles were found and after removing duplicate articles and checking the titles of the articles, 12 studies remained and were analyzed.

The results of the studies show that telemedicine is a feasible digital health intervention in palliative care that increase patient satisfaction, and patients, caregivers, and health professionals accept it. However, limitations such as the low literacy of some patients in the field of technology, internet access problems, and patients’ concern about the confidentiality of their health information are disadvantages of telemedicine technology. Discussion and

Despite the limitations in the use of telemedicine, this method can be adapted to the lives of patients at home and provide a solution for the inequality in access to medical care.