Digital Health Technologies to Improve Health Outcomes for People Living with Epilepsy: A Scoping Review
Abstract number :
1.376
Submission category :
13. Health Services (Delivery of Care, Access to Care, Health Care Models)
Year :
2023
Submission ID :
112
Source :
www.aesnet.org
Presentation date :
12/2/2023 12:00:00 AM
Published date :
Authors :
First Author: Grant Simic, BMedSc – UCB Pharma, Smyrna, Georgia, USA
Sydney Fillios – UCB Pharma, Smyrna, GA, USA; Tanja Hellier, PhD – UCB Pharma, Smyrna, GA, USA; Jan Vandenneucker, MSc – UCB Pharma, Brussels, Belgium
Rationale:
Digital health technologies, including wearable devices, mobile health, health information technology, telehealth, and personalized medicine, will increasingly play a significant role in improving epilepsy outcomes. We conducted a scoping review of the current scientific literature to identify studies on digital health technologies and/or other technology-based services for people living with epilepsy (PLWE) and their caregivers.
Methods:
PubMed, EMBASE, IEEE Xplore, and ACM Digital Library were searched for articles that were: (1) written in English, (2) published from January 2008 through June 2022, (3) peer-reviewed study, (4) described a service, solution, or intervention for PLWE that was self-administered or administered in collaboration with caregivers/healthcare professionals (HCPs), and (5) included a qualitative or quantitative evaluation of the service, solution, or intervention. Data elements of interest included the epilepsy-specific problem being addressed, intervention setting, study population, intervention type and description, outcome measures, data sources, and results. Studies on personalized and/or precision medicine, diagnostic technologies and services, treatment modalities other than digital therapeutics, and surgical interventions, implants, and neurostimulators were excluded.
Results:
The search generated a total of 638 unique articles, which were reviewed by two researchers. Of these, 28 articles (13 studies of adults, nine of pediatric/adolescent populations, five of all ages, one non-specified) met the inclusion criteria (Figure). All were published between 2011 to 2022. Some studies defined special populations based on seizure types, current pharmacological treatment, presence of co-morbidities, and veteran status. Fifteen studies were at home studies and 13 studies were conducted in a clinical setting, including six within a hospital epilepsy monitoring unit. The primary intervention type was wearable device (n=15 studies), mobile health (10), health information technology (2), and telehealth (1). Some studies included multiple intervention types. Most of the study sites were in the United States (n=11), followed by Belgium (3), Denmark (3), Germany (3), United Kingdom (3), Estonia (2), The Netherlands (2), Canada (1), China (1), Georgia (1), Ireland (1), Italy (1), Malaysia (1), Norway (1), Philippines (1), South Africa (1); four of these studies were multinational.
Conclusions:
Although there are a large number of publications on epilepsy, few have evaluated how digital health technologies may impact health outcomes. Furthermore, many of the studies did not include a sufficient sample size for statistical calculations. Additional research is needed to evaluate how the adoption of digital health technologies in epilepsy can improve health outcomes, support self-management, and increase access to cost-effective care.
Funding: UCB Pharma-sponsored
Health Services (Delivery of Care, Access to Care, Health Care Models)