TELEMEDICINE AS CARE ASSISTANT PALLIATIVES IN THE ELDERLY: A LITERATURE REVISION

• DOI: 10.22533/at.ed.1592702215115

• Palavras-chave: Palliative care; Seniors; Telemedicine; Home assistance.

• Keywords: Palliative care; Seniors; Telemedicine; Home assistance.

• Abstract:

  Objective: To investigate the importance of telemedicine as an aid to palliative care in elderly patients. Methodology: This is an integrative literature review, in which articles were searched in the databases indexed in the Virtual Health Library (VHL), Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences (LILACS) and Scientific Electronic Library Online. (SciELO), from 2017 to 2020. The following descriptors were used according to the Health Science Descriptors (DeCs\MeSH): “Palliative care”, 'Home care”, “Elderly” and “Telemedicine” interconnected by the Boolean operator "AND", after applying the filters: full text, published in the last five years, in Portuguese, English and Spanish, 9 articles were selected. Results and discussion: The selected researches showed relevant data on the importance of telemedicine as an aid to palliative care in geriatric patients, as it allows the facilitation of health-related services, including direct medical care, patient education, health information and self-care by through telecommunications and digital communication technologies, in addition to assisting caregivers in the necessary actions. This form of assistance using digital resources was of paramount importance in the COVID-19 pandemic, as the elderly population, especially in palliative care, was more vulnerable to the disease. This way, telemedicine allowed palliative care to be facilitated, respecting social distancing and continuity of care, even virtually. Despite the discussion about the importance of this care tool in many countries such as the United States of America, Mexico and the United Kingdom, the literature on this topic was limited in Brazil. Conclusion: In view of the importance of palliative care and telemedicine as a facilitator of this service, it is inferred the need to develop measures of awareness and accessibility of the population to digital media, training of professionals and dissemination of the benefits of telemedicine so that it is better disseminated in Brazil.