Telehealth, Home Monitoring and Single Ventricle Infants—A Scoping Review

Background: The aim of the scoping review is to identify information on the impact of telehealth (TH) interventions (such as telemdicine and home monitoring) on the heathcare of single ventricle (SV) infants during the interstage period.Infants with SV requiring staged palliation are at high risk for interstage morbidity and mortality. The National Pediatric Cardiology Quality improvent collaborative (NPC-QIC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) has addressed these risks by implementing interstage home monitoring (IHM). The stage one palliation surgery for these infants is usually within the first weeks of life, while stage two surgical palliation is around 3-6 months of age. Telehealth, including IHM, has been shown to decrease interstage mortality and morbidity, Methods: The online databases of PubMed and Cochrane Library were searched for articles in the English language related to telehealth and SV palliation. A methodological quality control process was conducted. Exclusion was based on first reading the abstract and then the manuscript was scanned to confirm the content was not related to SV and TH. Results: 12 Studies were included in the review after quality control analysis. The sample size reported in these studies ranged between 9 to 610 single ventricle subjects. In nine studies, telehealth and computer-based applications were part of the home monitoring intervention, while in two studies mobile phone-based applications were used to monitor interstage patients and one study analyzed the feasibility of the addition of a digital stethoscope to the home monitoring program. Conclusions: Adoption of TH/ home monitoring practices was associated with improved morbidity and mortality; expedited outpatient assessments, necessary on-time admissions, and hospitalization if needed. Most of the research reported initial results of the studies and extended multicenter collaborative work in this area is recommended.