Palliative care and primary health care share common principles and emphasise continuity of care and solidarity (accompaniment), respecting patients’ values and preferences, responding to social suffering, and paying attention to both patients and their families. This study is a one-year project funded by the Burdett Trust for Nursing (SB\ZA\101010662\495748) to improve person-centred nurse-led care for primary care patients with progressive multimorbid illness. It is a mixed-methods study using survey and interviews, which will develop and pilot a tele-health approach (IPOS-APP) in primary care, to better identify and address complex unmet needs of patients and families in primary care, reduce unnecessary emergency hospital admissions, and improve patients’ experience of primary care.
This IPOS-APP is designed based on the Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale (IPOS) which is a free, brief, and validated person-centred outcome measure and widely used for patients (or caregivers) to self-report symptoms and needs, and to facilitate good self-care. The IPOS has previously been paper based and used in routine clinical care to support needs assessment process. The innovation in this study is the development and implementation of a mobile app as a means of delivering the IPOS in primary care settings. For more information about the IPOS, please visit the IPOS website.
This study is aligned with priority for digitalisation in health care. It promotes the implementation of a tele-health approach in primary care and has enormous implications for public health policy and clinical practice, particularly in response to the current COVID-19 pandemic. The study leads directly to patient benefit through early identification and management of unmet needs and symptoms, and provides stakeholder views and an evidence-based implementation strategy for full evaluation of IPOS-APP routine use in primary care in the future.