Beyond forest plots: clinical gestalt and its influence on COPD telemonitoring studies and outcomes review

Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive chronic condition. Improvements in therapies have resulted in better patient outcomes. The use of technology such as telemonitoring as an additional intervention is aimed at enhancing care and reducing unnecessary acute hospita...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Christine F McDonald, Sheree M Smith, Anne E Holland
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMJ Publishing Group 2019-12-01
Series:BMJ Open
Online Access:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/12/e030779.full
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1846147187553075200
author Christine F McDonald
Sheree M Smith
Anne E Holland
author_facet Christine F McDonald
Sheree M Smith
Anne E Holland
author_sort Christine F McDonald
collection DOAJ
description Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive chronic condition. Improvements in therapies have resulted in better patient outcomes. The use of technology such as telemonitoring as an additional intervention is aimed at enhancing care and reducing unnecessary acute hospital service use. The influence of verbal communication between health staff and patients to inform decision making regarding use of acute hospital services within telemonitoring studies has not been assessed.Method A systematic overview of published systematic reviews of COPD and telemonitoring was conducted using an a priori protocol to ascertain the impact of verbal communication in telemonitoring studies on health service outcomes such as emergency department attendances, hospitalisation and hospital length of stay. The search of the following electronic databases: Cochrane Library, Medline, Pubmed, CINAHL, Embase, TROVE, Australian Digital Thesis and Proquest International Dissertations and Theses was conducted in 2017 and updated in September 2019.Results Six systematic reviews were identified. All reviews involved home monitoring of COPD symptoms and biometric data. Included reviews reported 5–28 studies with sample sizes ranging from 310 to 2891 participants. Many studies reported in the systematic reviews were excluded as they were telephone support, cost effectiveness studies, and/or did not report the outcomes of interest for this overview. Irrespective of group assignment, verbal communication with the health or research team did not alter the emergency attendance or hospitalisation outcome. The length of stay was longer for those who were assigned home telemonitoring in the majority of studies.Conclusion This overview of telemonitoring for COPD had small sample sizes and a wide variety of included studies. Communication was not consistent in all included studies. Understanding the context of communication with study participants and the decision-making process for referring patients to various health services needs to be reported in future studies of telemonitoring and COPD.
format Article
id doaj-art-d84ead14a2eb4ccd984bcd1ecfcb341e
institution Kabale University
issn 2044-6055
language English
publishDate 2019-12-01
publisher BMJ Publishing Group
record_format Article
series BMJ Open
spelling doaj-art-d84ead14a2eb4ccd984bcd1ecfcb341e2024-12-01T19:45:13ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open2044-60552019-12-0191210.1136/bmjopen-2019-030779Beyond forest plots: clinical gestalt and its influence on COPD telemonitoring studies and outcomes reviewChristine F McDonald0Sheree M Smith1Anne E Holland215 Respiratory and Sleep Medicine, Austin Hospital, Heidelberg, Victoria, AustraliaSchool of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University, Penrith South, New South Wales, AustraliaDepartment of Physiotherapy, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, AustraliaBackground Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive chronic condition. Improvements in therapies have resulted in better patient outcomes. The use of technology such as telemonitoring as an additional intervention is aimed at enhancing care and reducing unnecessary acute hospital service use. The influence of verbal communication between health staff and patients to inform decision making regarding use of acute hospital services within telemonitoring studies has not been assessed.Method A systematic overview of published systematic reviews of COPD and telemonitoring was conducted using an a priori protocol to ascertain the impact of verbal communication in telemonitoring studies on health service outcomes such as emergency department attendances, hospitalisation and hospital length of stay. The search of the following electronic databases: Cochrane Library, Medline, Pubmed, CINAHL, Embase, TROVE, Australian Digital Thesis and Proquest International Dissertations and Theses was conducted in 2017 and updated in September 2019.Results Six systematic reviews were identified. All reviews involved home monitoring of COPD symptoms and biometric data. Included reviews reported 5–28 studies with sample sizes ranging from 310 to 2891 participants. Many studies reported in the systematic reviews were excluded as they were telephone support, cost effectiveness studies, and/or did not report the outcomes of interest for this overview. Irrespective of group assignment, verbal communication with the health or research team did not alter the emergency attendance or hospitalisation outcome. The length of stay was longer for those who were assigned home telemonitoring in the majority of studies.Conclusion This overview of telemonitoring for COPD had small sample sizes and a wide variety of included studies. Communication was not consistent in all included studies. Understanding the context of communication with study participants and the decision-making process for referring patients to various health services needs to be reported in future studies of telemonitoring and COPD.https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/12/e030779.full
spellingShingle Christine F McDonald
Sheree M Smith
Anne E Holland
Beyond forest plots: clinical gestalt and its influence on COPD telemonitoring studies and outcomes review
BMJ Open
title Beyond forest plots: clinical gestalt and its influence on COPD telemonitoring studies and outcomes review
title_full Beyond forest plots: clinical gestalt and its influence on COPD telemonitoring studies and outcomes review
title_fullStr Beyond forest plots: clinical gestalt and its influence on COPD telemonitoring studies and outcomes review
title_full_unstemmed Beyond forest plots: clinical gestalt and its influence on COPD telemonitoring studies and outcomes review
title_short Beyond forest plots: clinical gestalt and its influence on COPD telemonitoring studies and outcomes review
title_sort beyond forest plots clinical gestalt and its influence on copd telemonitoring studies and outcomes review
url https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/12/e030779.full
work_keys_str_mv AT christinefmcdonald beyondforestplotsclinicalgestaltanditsinfluenceoncopdtelemonitoringstudiesandoutcomesreview
AT shereemsmith beyondforestplotsclinicalgestaltanditsinfluenceoncopdtelemonitoringstudiesandoutcomesreview
AT anneeholland beyondforestplotsclinicalgestaltanditsinfluenceoncopdtelemonitoringstudiesandoutcomesreview