UNSTRUCTURED Due to the complexities of advanced illnesses and their treatments, it can be difficult for patients to maintain their quality of life. Telemedicine interventions in chronic disease management engage patients in their care, provide continuous follow-up by their healthcare providers, identify symptoms earlier, and respond quickly to illness-related decline. Here we report our perspectives and workflow related to adapting our HumanITcare platform to the Palliative Care setting. We aimed to improve follow-up and prevent repeated admissions due to the worsening of symptoms by developing an intelligent remote patient monitoring system for the registration and intensity of relevant symptoms with the collaboration of expert professionals in advanced chronic diseases and a specific development team for healthcare applications. Our efforts resulted in an easy-to-use application that included specific management elements for patients and a web application for professionals, pilot-tested with 60 patients. It was accepted well by patients. Incorporating an intelligent remote patient monitoring system in clinical practice for patients in palliative care can improve access to health services and provide more information to professionals.

Tan la física com la medicina són dues ciències presents en la majoria de processos de la nostra vida quotidiana. Els coneixements que la societat ha anat adquirint en aquests àmbits són en gran part gràcies als acceleradors de partícules. Existeixen varis tipus d'acceleradors de partícules, des d'acceleradors lineals fins a acceleradors circulars. Tots ells tenen moltes aplicacions en la ciència, sent una de les més utilitzades actualment les mèdiques. Aquest article tracta precisament d'aquestes dins l'àmbit oncològic, on podem trobar-hi tant l'ús de radioisòtops en els mètodes de diagnosi com l'ús de radiació en teràpies.Paraules clau: acceleradors de partícules, mètodes de diagnosi, radioteràpia, radiació, isòtops. Both physics and medicine are two sciences present in most of our daily life processes.The knowledge society has acquired in these areas are largely due to particle accelerators. There are several kinds of particle accelerators ranging from linear to circular. They all have lots of applications to science; being nowadays one of the most used the medical ones. This article deals mainly with those on the oncological field, where we can find both the use of radioisotopes to help diagnostics and the use of radiation in some therapies.

Background Due to the complexities of advanced illnesses and their treatments, it can be difficult for patients in palliative care to maintain their quality of life. Telemedicine interventions in chronic disease management engage patients in their care, provide continuous follow-up by their health care providers, identify symptoms earlier, and allow a quick response to illness-related decline. Objective We aimed to detail and reflect on the design of an app and evaluate its feasibility to monitor the clinical situation of patients with advanced illnesses. Methods This study used a mixed methods design using qualitative methods to inform app development and design and quantitative methods for data collection and analysis of patient evaluations. Palliative care units in 2 Spanish university hospitals (Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and University Hospital Complex of Ferrol in A Coruña) carried out a literature review, designed the study protocol, and obtained approval from the Ethics Committee from June to December 2020. In addition, focus group meetings were held, and the design and technical development of the app were elaborated on and subsequently presented in the participating palliative care units. From January to March 2021, the app was made public on the App Store and Play Store, and a pilot study with patients was carried out in April to September 2021. Results Six focus group meetings were held that included doctors, nurses, app developers, technology consultants, and sponsors. In addition, the technology consultants presented their results 3 times in the participating palliative care units to obtain feedback. After the app’s final design, it was possible to publish it on the usual servers and begin its evaluation in patients (n=60, median age 72 years). Sixty percent (n=36) of the participants were women and 40% (n=24) were men. The most prevalent advanced pathology was cancer (n=46, 76%), followed by other diseases (n=7, 12%) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (n=5, 8%). Seventy percent (n=42) of the patients were already in follow-up prior to the start of the study, while 30% (n=18) were included at the start of their follow-up. The information in the app was collected and entered by relatives or caregivers in 60% (n=36) of the cases. The median follow-up was 52 (IQR 14-104) days. In all, 69% (n=41) had a follow-up >30 days (10 were deceased and 9 were missing data). The use of the different sections of the app ranged from 37% (n=22) for the glycemic record to 90% (n=54) for the constipation scale). Patients and caregivers were delighted with its ease of use and usefulness. Conclusions Incorporating an intelligent remote patient monitoring system in clinical practice for patients in palliative care can improve access to health services and provide more information to professionals.