Iproceedings

Each year, an estimated 20 million people worldwide are in need of palliative care. The main diagnosis of people needing palliative care is cancer, followed by cardiovascular disease and chronical obstructive lung disease. The web-based telepalliation program and digital platform (offering video consultation, treatment planning, patient-reported outcomes, chat forum, and information on palliation) was developed through a participatory design process involving patients, their relatives, health care professionals, and researchers.

Fall accidents in older adults are associated with reduced quality of life, personal health issues, and earlier deaths. Previous studies have found that both physical and cognitive parameters influence the risk of falling in older adults. During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown (2020-2021) in Denmark, web-based training was the safest option for training, although its effectiveness was uncertain.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the changes of daily practice in medical care worldwide. Telemedicine is one of the most stimulated fields among these changes, even in the cardiovascular disease care. In the past decade, remote monitoring has become an important tool that provides valuable clinical information via respiratory assist devices and implantable pacemakers from patients at home.

The Danish eHealth portal, sundhed.dk, pioneers open access to medical records since 2003 and is, in this regard, unique worldwide. As part of the Danish health care sector, sundhed.dk supports transparency and patient empowerment and provides health professionals with the possibility to access patient health data outside of local systems and across sectors and boundaries. Sundhed.dk and the MyHealth app have played a crucial role during the COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark, not least due to the development of the corona passport.

Multiple digital technologies were used during and after the COVID-19 pandemic with an intent to improve quality of patient care. It has been seen that the perception of patients toward the use of digital solutions in clinical care varies significantly. This has also been attributed to varying levels of digital literacy among the health care professionals (HCP) involved in patient care.

Video consultation was urgently introduced in general practice in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, where a rapid implementation ensured patients’ continued access to their general practitioner (GP). With the Danish lockdown in March 2020, the use of video consultations in general practice increased drastically and then declined significantly shortly after as society gradually reopened. Today, only a small proportion of the total number of consultations in general practice is made up of video consultations, and there is great variation in the scope and use of video consultation among GPs and practice staff.

Heart failure is one of the most common cardiovascular diseases that causes mortality, and patients’ participation in rehabilitation programs is often low. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Future Patient Telerehabilitation Program developed for patients with heart failure offered a new approach. The aim of the Future Patient program has been to increase the quality of life and educate patients to monitor any worsening of their symptoms. Patients used self-tracking devices for monitoring their physical activity, blood pressure, sleep, respiration, and pulse, with their data transmitted to a shared web platform (called the Heart Portal), which could be accessed by patients, their relatives, and health care professionals across sectors.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic’s preventive measures, mental health care services were forced to reorganize and develop remote telehealth services. This led to newer modes of receiving treatment, both internet-based and video-based therapies, to meet patients’ need for help, while at the same time keeping the COVID-19 pandemic under control. This shift calls for an evaluation of the patient experience during times of increased use of novel approaches of receiving treatment. Brief evaluation forms are ideal for this purpose.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the need for new ways to perform remote patient education. Patients with heart failure are associated with a high readmission rate. Rehabilitation can prevent hospital readmissions, but there is poor participation in rehabilitation of patients with heart failure. Based on user-driven innovation in the Future Patient research project, we have developed the prototype of the digital Heart Game. The Heart Game is a new approach to digital patient education, where patients can access a digital board game via an app; through the board game, they can be presented with quizzes, activities, and reflection questions, all related to heart failure.

The design and development of digital health platforms do not routinely incorporate psychosocial aspects and theory that may increase engagement and motivation for using the digital solution. However, emerging evidence suggests that when integrating both theory and psychosocial aspects in the design process, the resulting digital health platforms may be superior in engaging and motivating patients to use them.

Survival possibilities among children and adolescents (referred to as “children”) with cancer have increased, resulting in more children and parents living with sequelae and psychological distress, respectively. Childhood cancer treatment is intensive and long term and affects the everyday life and functioning of the whole family, including daily and social life restrictions and hospitalizations, which force the parents to split up between the hospital and home to care for both the ill child and siblings and manage their jobs and homelife routines. Adequate parental coping strategies are essential for family adjustment and the child’s coping ability. Parenting a child with cancer, however, is challenging and stressful.

Over the past decade, hospital admissions for patients undergoing orthopedic surgery have been shortened, and the time for informing and educating patients prior to discharge has been compromised. The transition of care from hospital to home poses a substantial risk of adverse events. Patients have difficulty remembering information and struggle to assess the severity of symptoms after discharge, leading to unplanned telephone contacts and clinic visits. These inquiries are frequent and pose a substantial burden on the health care system and patients. The COVID-19 pandemic showed an emerging need to implement new communication technologies. Asynchronous digital communication (DC) may provide easy access to health care and seamless communication across sectors.