Contribution to the improvement of healthcare in nephrology through ICT Intervention: Survey Study to Portuguese and Spanish Healthcare Professional
*Corresponding Author:Received Date: Nov 09, 2023 / Published Date: Jan 21, 2025
Citation: Abel ML, Rita PA, Olmedo S, Javier J (2025) Contribution to the Improvement of Healthcare in Nephrology through ICT Intervention: Survey Study to Portuguese and Spanish Healthcare Professional. J Community Med Health Educ 15: 914.
Copyright: © 2025 Abel ML, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background and purpose: Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a common chronic disease usually associated with Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), and premature death and millions of people are at increased risk for CKD. As this disease is extremely complex, Multidisciplinary Care (MDC) is needed to provide complete and continuous care. Usually, the nephrology units need cooperation from several other Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) such as cardiologists, nutritionists, obstetricians, and so forth. All modalities of treatments, Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) and Hemodialysis (HD) require HCPs and patients to develop a variety of skills to effectively deliver and manage dialysis tasks in the center or at home. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) interventions can offer tools that provide HCPs and patients with tools that facilitate the management of kidney patients in centers or at home. ICT interventions can allow to automate registrations, videoconferencing, minimize the geographic burden and resource cost savings. ICT can be the best way to promote cost saving on health spending and ensure the sustainability of the health system and, the environment as well. In the Iberian Peninsula, kidney patients consume about 3% of the total cost of healthcare. The cost of kidney transplants and dialysis is around 1.8 billion euros annually, and 75 % of this amount goes to dialysis treatment.
Objective: This study aimed to evaluate and analyze the opinion of Healthcare Professionals (HCP) in Nephrology units about the Intervention of ICT in nephrology care and the Clinical benefits results from the use of ICT in Nephrology Services and dialysis Units in Portugal and Spain. Thus we collected the opinion of health care professionals concerning the role of ICT intervention in nephrology. Understanding HCPs' feelings and attitudes is essential to understand if such technologies are correctly adjusted to the workflow and really bring huge benefits for the clinical practice of nephrology and also what features need improvement and what should be implemented in the future. ICT intervention has been implemented to promote better healthcare in nephrology units and improve patient outcomes. In the survey, we intended to evaluate nephrology HCPs' opinions concerning the ICT interventions, in nephrology, represented by several tools that allow the HCPs to implement solutions such as Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), Remote Monitoring of Treatment (RMT), tele homecare, telehealth (tlenephrology), home dialysis, mHealth, mobile app, web portal, telemedicine, and so forth.
