Digital health in stroke: a narrative review

Abstract

Digital health is significantly transforming stroke care, particularly in remote and economically diverse regions, by harnessing mobile and wireless technologies, big data, and artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the promising advancements, a notable gap exists in the formal clinical validation of many digital health applications, raising concerns about their efficacy and safety in real-world clinical settings. Our review systematically explores the landscape of digital health in stroke care, assessing the development, validation, and implementation of various digital tools. We adopted a comprehensive search strategy, scrutinizing peer-reviewed articles published between January 2015 and January 2024, to gather evidence on the effectiveness of digital health interventions. A rigorous quality assessment was conducted to ensure the reliability of the included studies, with findings synthesized to underscore key technological innovations and their clinical outcomes. Ethical considerations were meticulously observed to maintain data confidentiality and integrity. Our findings highlight the transformative potential of mobile health technologies, AI, and telemedicine in improving diagnostic accuracy, treatment efficacy, and patient outcomes in stroke care. Our paper delves into the evolution and impact of digital health in cerebrovascular prevention, diagnosis, rehabilitation and stroke treatment, emphasizing the digital health's role in enhancing access to expert care, mitigating treatment delays and improving outcomes. However, the review also underscores the critical need for rigorous clinical validation and ethical considerations in the development and deployment of digital health technologies to ensure their safe and effective integration into stroke care practices.

Resumo

A saúde digital está transformando significativamente o cuidado com o acidente vascular cerebral (AVC), especialmente em regiões remotas e economicamente diversas, ao aproveitar tecnologias móveis e sem fio, big data e inteligência artificial (IA). Apesar dos avanços promissores, existe uma lacuna notável na validação clínica formal de muitas aplicações de saúde digital, levantando preocupações sobre sua eficácia e segurança em ambientes clínicos do mundo real. Nossa revisão explora sistematicamente a paisagem da saúde digital no cuidado do AVC, avaliando o desenvolvimento, validação e implementação de várias ferramentas digitais. Adotamos uma estratégia de busca abrangente, examinando artigos revisados por pares publicados entre janeiro de 2015 e janeiro de 2024, para reunir evidências sobre a eficácia das intervenções de saúde digital. Uma avaliação de qualidade rigorosa foi conduzida para garantir a confiabilidade dos estudos incluídos, com os achados sintetizados para destacar as principais inovações tecnológicas e seus resultados clínicos. Considerações éticas foram meticulosamente observadas para manter a confidencialidade e integridade dos dados. Nossas descobertas destacam o potencial transformador das tecnologias de saúde móvel, IA e telemedicina em melhorar a precisão diagnóstica, a eficácia do tratamento e os resultados dos pacientes no cuidado do AVC. Nosso artigo aprofunda-se na evolução e impacto da saúde digital na prevenção, diagnóstico, reabilitação e tratamento do AVC, enfatizando seu papel em melhorar o acesso ao cuidado especializado, mitigar atrasos no tratamento e melhorar os desfechos. No entanto, a revisão também sublinha a necessidade crítica de validação clínica rigorosa e considerações éticas no desenvolvimento e implantação de tecnologias de saúde digital para garantir sua integração segura e eficaz nas práticas de cuidado do AVC.

Keywords

Digital Health - Stroke

Palavras-chave

Saúde Digital - Acidente Vascular Cerebral

Editor-in-Chief

Ayrton Roberto Massaro.

Associate Editor

Marcos Christiano Lange.

Authors' Contributions

GSS: conceptualization, methodology, project administration, writing – original draft, and writing – review & editing; JBCA: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, writing – original draft, and writing – review & editing.

Publication History

Received: 02 February 2024

Accepted: 09 June 2024

Article published online:
26 August 2024

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