A proportion of persons affected by coronavirus disease‐19 (COVID‐19) die and do so in extraordinary circumstances. This can make grief management extremely challenging for families. The Clinical Psychology unit of an Italian hospital offered a bereavement follow‐up call to such families. This study aimed to explore the families' experiences and needs collected during these calls, and the role that the psychologists played through the call. A total of 246 families were called over 3 months. Multiple qualitative methods included: (i) written reports of the calls with relatives of patients who died at the hospital for COVID‐19; (ii) qualitative semi‐structured interviews with psychologists involved in the calls; (iii) observation of psychologists' peer group discussions. A thematic analysis was conducted. Six themes emerged: without death rituals, solitary, unexpected, unfair, unsafe, coexisting with other stressors. Families' reactions were perceived by psychologists as close to a traumatic grief. Families' needs ranged from finding alternative rituals to giving meaning and expressing different emotions. The psychologists played both a social‐institutional and a psychological‐human role through the calls (e.g., they cured disrupted communication or validated feelings and choices). This study highlighted the potential of traumatic grief of families of COVID‐19 victims, and provided indications for supporting them within the space of a short phone call.

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Societies need solutions to achieve the “triple aim” of improved health outcomes, better patient care, and lower costs; and engaging patients in their care by using technological solutions is claimed as a possible strategy to achieve this vital goal. On this basis, the chapter focuses on reviewing, categorizing and synthesizing technological tools currently available in the market today designed to engage patients in their own care process. In particular, the goals of medication adherence, reduced hospital readmission, behavior modification, and health literacy - with related technologies - are assessed, since they are considered todays most expensive health care burdens. The advantages, shortcomings, and potential economic impact of such tools are finally discussed.