Co-created Technological Solutions for Caregivers in Health Care: Systematic Review (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Support interventions for caregivers can reduce their stress, possibly improving the quality of patients’ care while reducing care costs. Technological solutions have been designed in accordance with the current context that covers some of these needs, but that present some challenges to make them truly functional for end users. To this end, co-creation has been incorporated into these technology design and development processes. OBJECTIVE The study aimed to know what co-created technological solutions exist in the health field for caregivers, as well as their characteristics, purpose, and profile to whom are addressed. Secondarily, it was intended to analyze the co-creation processes used in developing these technological solutions. METHODS The literature review was conducted in the Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, Science Direct, Scielo and IEEE Xplore databases. The inclusion criteria were studies written in English or Spanish and with publication limit until May 2021. The content had to specify that the caregivers actively participated in the co-creation process, and this had to reach the development phase of the technological solution (prototype). The level of evidence was analyzed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT), version 2018, when was possible. RESULTS In total, 410 papers were identified and 11 met the eligibility criteria. The most predominant articles were mixed-method studies and qualitative studies. The technology used in the analyzed articles were mobile/web applications (6 studies), websites (3 studies) and specific devices such as sensors, cameras, or alarm systems (2 studies) to support the health and social aspects of caregivers and improve their education in care. The most common patient profile were older people (7 studies). Six studies used co-creation in the requirements phase, 6 detailed the design phase, in 9 studies the prototype was iteratively refined in the development phase and the validation phase was performed in 5 of the reviewed studies. CONCLUSIONS The current systematic review suggests that the existing co-created technological solutions in the field of health for caregivers are mostly mobile/web applications to support caregivers’ social and wellbeing aspects and improve their health knowledge when delivering care to the patients, concretely in older people. As for the co-creation process, caregivers are especially involved at the time of development and, also in the design.