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Robotic technology for palliative and supportive care: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Medical robots are increasingly used for a variety of applications in healthcare. Robots have mainly been used to support surgical procedures, and for a variety of assistive uses in dementia and elderly care. To date, there has been limited debate about the potential opportunities and risks of robotics in other areas of palliative, supportive and end-of-life care. AIM:The objective of this article is to examine the possible future impact of medical robotics on palliative, supportive care and end-of-life care. Specifically, we will discuss the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of this technology. METHODS:A SWOT analysis to understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of robotic technology in palliative and supportive care. RESULTS:The opportunities of robotics in palliative, supportive and end-of-life care include a number of assistive, therapeutic, social and educational uses. However, there are a number of technical, societal, economic and ethical factors which need to be considered to ensure meaningful use of this technology in palliative care. CONCLUSION:Robotics could have a number of potential applications in palliative, supportive and end-of-life care. Future work should evaluate the health-related, economic, societal and ethical implications of using this technology. There is a need for collaborative research to establish use-cases and inform policy, to ensure the appropriate use (or non-use) of robots for people with serious illness.

SUBMITTER: Nwosu AC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6691596 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Robotic technology for palliative and supportive care: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Nwosu Amara Callistus AC Sturgeon Bethany B McGlinchey Tamsin T Goodwin Christian Dg CD Behera Ardhendu A Mason Stephen S Stanley Sarah S Payne Terry R TR

Palliative medicine 20190628 8

<h4>Background</h4>Medical robots are increasingly used for a variety of applications in healthcare. Robots have mainly been used to support surgical procedures, and for a variety of assistive uses in dementia and elderly care. To date, there has been limited debate about the potential opportunities and risks of robotics in other areas of palliative, supportive and end-of-life care.<h4>Aim</h4>The objective of this article is to examine the possible future impact of medical robotics on palliativ ...[more]

PMID: 31250734

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Project description:BackgroundChatGPT is a 175-billion-parameter natural language processing model that is already involved in scientific content and publications. Its influence ranges from providing quick access to information on medical topics, assisting in generating medical and scientific articles and papers, performing medical data analyses, and even interpreting complex data sets.ObjectiveThe future role of ChatGPT remains uncertain and a matter of debate already shortly after its release. This review aimed to analyze the role of ChatGPT in the medical literature during the first 3 months after its release.MethodsWe performed a concise review of literature published in PubMed from December 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023. To find all publications related to ChatGPT or considering ChatGPT, the search term was kept simple ("ChatGPT" in AllFields). All publications available as full text in German or English were included. All accessible publications were evaluated according to specifications by the author team (eg, impact factor, publication modus, article type, publication speed, and type of ChatGPT integration or content). The conclusions of the articles were used for later SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. All data were analyzed on a descriptive basis.ResultsOf 178 studies in total, 160 met the inclusion criteria and were evaluated. The average impact factor was 4.423 (range 0-96.216), and the average publication speed was 16 (range 0-83) days. Among the articles, there were 77 editorials (48,1%), 43 essays (26.9%), 21 studies (13.1%), 6 reviews (3.8%), 6 case reports (3.8%), 6 news (3.8%), and 1 meta-analysis (0.6%). Of those, 54.4% (n=87) were published as open access, with 5% (n=8) provided on preprint servers. Over 400 quotes with information on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats were detected. By far, most (n=142, 34.8%) were related to weaknesses. ChatGPT excels in its ability to express ideas clearly and formulate general contexts comprehensibly. It performs so well that even experts in the field have difficulty identifying abstracts generated by ChatGPT. However, the time-limited scope and the need for corrections by experts were mentioned as weaknesses and threats of ChatGPT. Opportunities include assistance in formulating medical issues for nonnative English speakers, as well as the possibility of timely participation in the development of such artificial intelligence tools since it is in its early stages and can therefore still be influenced.ConclusionsArtificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT are already part of the medical publishing landscape. Despite their apparent opportunities, policies and guidelines must be implemented to ensure benefits in education, clinical practice, and research and protect against threats such as scientific misconduct, plagiarism, and inaccuracy.

Project description:Introduction: Personalized medicine and management of adherence are potential solutions for the suboptimal use of medicines. Digital medication management innovations currently under development combine both aspects. This research aims to investigate facilitators for and barriers to the translation of digital innovations for personalized medicine and adherence management into clinical practice from the policymaker and regulator perspective. Methods: A mixed-method study was used combining a scoping review to identify main interests, semi-structured interviews (n = 5) with representatives of European health policymaking and regulatory organizations, and a supplementary literature review to investigate key subthemes. The SWOT analysis was used for the qualitative analysis. Results: The literature reviews and the qualitative interviews suggested that digital solutions can facilitate the personalized management of medications and improve quality and safety, especially as the openness for digital health solutions is increasing. Digital solutions may, on the other hand, add complexity to the treatment, which can be perceived as a potential barrier for their uptake. As more multidisciplinary and participative structures are emerging, digital solutions can promote the implementation of new services. Nevertheless, change progresses slowly in the task-oriented structures of health systems. Integration of digital solutions depends on all stakeholders' willingness and abilities to co-create this change. Patients have different capabilities to self-manage their medical conditions and use digital solutions. Personalization of digital health solutions and integration in existing service structures are crucial to ensure equality among population segments. Developments in the digital infrastructure, although they are partly slow and not well-aligned, enable the implementation of innovations in clinical practice leading to further advances in data generation and usage for future innovations. Discussion: This study suggests that digital solutions have the potential to facilitate high-quality medication management and improve adherence to medications, enable new service structures, and are essential to drive further innovations in health care. Nevertheless, increasing the self-responsibility of patients can have undesirable effects on health outcomes, especially within vulnerable population segments. Digital health solutions can be an opportunity to optimize the use of medicines and thus their efficiency. Well-conceived development and implementation processes are needed to also realize improvements in equality and solidarity within health systems.

Project description:BackgroundMany projects related to technology implementation in the context of chronic diseases have been developed over the years to better manage lifestyle medicine interventions and improve patient care. However, technology implementation in primary care settings remains challenging.ObjectiveThe aim is to carry out a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis (1) to assess satisfaction among patients with type 2 diabetes using an activity tracker to increase motivation for physical activity (PA) and (2) to explore the research and health care team's perceptions of this technology's implementation in a primary care setting.MethodsA 3-month hybrid type 1 study, which included 2 stages, was conducted in an academic primary health center in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. In stage 1, a total of 30 patients with type 2 diabetes were randomized to the intervention (activity tracker) group or the control group. In stage 2, a SWOT analysis was performed on both patients and health care professionals to determine the components of successful technology implementation. Two questionnaires were used to gather feedback: a satisfaction and acceptability questionnaire concerning an activity tracker (15 patients in the intervention group) and a questionnaire based on the SWOT elements (15 patients in the intervention group and 7 health care professionals). Both questionnaires contained quantitative and qualitative questions. Qualitative variables from open questions were synthesized in a matrix and ranked according to apparition frequency and global importance. A thematic analysis was performed by the first author and validated by 2 coauthors separately. The information gathered was triangulated to propose recommendations that were then approved by the team. Both quantitative (randomized controlled trial participants) and qualitative (randomized controlled trial participants and team) results were combined for recommendations.ResultsIn total, 86% (12/14) of the participants were satisfied with their activity tracker use and 75% (9/12) felt that it incited them to stick to their PA program. The main strengths of the team members' perspectives were the project initiation and involvement of a patient partner, the study design, the team, and the device. The weaknesses were the budgetary constraints, the turnover, and the technical issues. The opportunities were the primary care setting, the loan of equipment, and common technology. The threats were recruitment issues, administrative challenges, technological difficulties, and a single research site.ConclusionsPatients with type 2 diabetes were satisfied with their activity tracker used to improve motivation for PA. Health care team members agreed that implementation can be done in primary care, but some challenges remain in using this technological tool in clinical practice regularly.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT03709966; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03709966.

Project description:BackgroundAs the SARS-CoV-2 virus created a global pandemic and rapidly became an imminent threat to the health and lives of people worldwide, the need for a vaccine and its quick distribution among the population was evident. Due to the urgency, and on the back of international collaboration, vaccines were developed rapidly. However, vaccination rollouts showed different success rates in different countries and some also led to increased vaccine hesitancy.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to identify the role of information sharing and context sensitivity in various vaccination programs throughout the initial COVID-19 vaccination rollout in different countries. Moreover, we aimed to identify factors in national vaccination programs related to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, safety, and effectiveness. Toward this end, multidisciplinary and multinational opinions from members of the Navigating Knowledge Landscape (NKL) network were analyzed.MethodsFrom May to July 2021, 25 completed questionnaires from 27 NKL network members were collected. These contributors were from 17 different countries. The responses reflected the contributors' subjective viewpoints on the status and details of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout in their countries. Contributors were asked to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (ie, SWOT) of the respective vaccination programs. The responses were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, followed by frequency analysis of identified themes according to the represented countries.ResultsThe perspectives of NKL network members showed a link between organizational elements of the vaccination rollout and the accompanying societal response, both of which were related to strengths and weaknesses of the process. External sociocultural variables, improved public communication around vaccination-related issues, ethical controversies, and the spread of disinformation were the dominant themes related to opportunities and challenges. In the SWOT 2×2 matrix, Availability and Barriers emerged as internal categories, whereas Transparent communication and promotion and Societal divide emerged as key external categories.ConclusionsInventory of themes and categories inspired by elements of the SWOT framework provides an informative multidisciplinary perspective for effective implementation of public health strategies in the battle against COVID-19 or any future pandemics of a similar nature.

Project description:The improvement of maternal health has been one of the aims of the health financing reforms in Georgia. Public-private relationships are the most notable part of the reform. This study aimed to assess the strengths and weakness of the maternal care financing in Georgia in terms of adequacy and effects.A qualitative design was used to explore the opinions of key stakeholders about the adequacy of maternal care financing and financial protection of pregnant women in Georgia. Women who had used maternal care during the past 4 years along with health care providers, policy makers, and representatives of international partner organizations and national professional body were the respondents in this study. Six focus group discussions to collect data from women and 15 face-to-face in-depth interviews to collect data from the other stakeholders were conducted. Each focus group discussion consisted of 7-8 women. Two focus group discussions were carried out at each of the target settings (i.e. Tbilisi, Imereti and Adjara). Women were selected in each location through the hospital registry and snowballing method.The evidence shows that there is a consensus among maternal care stakeholder groups on the influence of the healthcare financing reforms on maternal health. Specifically, the privatization of the maternal care services has had positive effects because it significantly improved the environment and technical capacity of the maternity houses. Also, in contrast to other former-soviet republics, there are no informal payments anymore for maternal care in Georgia. However the privatization, which was done without strict regulation, negatively influenced the reform process and provided the possibility to private providers to manipulate the formal user fees in maternal care. Stakeholders also indicated that the UHC programs implemented at the last stage of the healthcare financing reform as well as other state maternal health programs protect women from catastrophic health care expenditure.The results suggest a consensus among stakeholders on the influence of the healthcare financing reform on maternal healthcare. The total privatization of the maternal care services has had positive effects because it significantly improved the environment and the technical capacity of the maternity house. However, the aim to improve maternal health and to reduce maternal mortality was not fully achieved. Financial protection of mothers should be further studied to identify vulnerable groups who should be targeted in future programs.

Dataset Information

Robotic technology for palliative and supportive care: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Publications

Robotic technology for palliative and supportive care: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

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