Digital Health in Melanoma Posttreatment Care in Rural and Remote Australia: Systematic Review

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Journal of Medical Internet Research - International Scientific Journal for Medical Research, Information and Communication on the Internet #Preprint #PeerReviewMe: Warning: This is a unreviewed preprint. Readers are warned that the document has not been peer-reviewed by expert/patient reviewers or an academic editor, may contain misleading claims, and is likely to undergo changes before final publication, if accepted, or may have been rejected/withdrawn. Readers with interest and expertise are encouraged to sign up as peer-reviewer, if the paper is within an open peer-review period. Please cite this preprint only for review purposes or for grant applications and CVs (if you are the author). Background: The melanoma incidence and mortality rates in rural and remote communities are exponentially higher than in urban areas. Digital health could be used to close the urban/rural gap for melanoma and improve access to post-treatment and support care services. Objective: To understand how digital health is currently used for melanoma post-treatment care and determine its benefits for Australian rural and remote areas. Methods: A systematic search of PubMed, Medline, Google Scholar, Scopus was conducted in March 2018. Findings were clustered per type of intervention and related-direct outcomes. Results: Five studies met the inclusion criteria, but none of them investigated the benefits of digital health for melanoma post-treatment care in rural and remote areas of Australia. A number of empirical studies demonstrated consumers’ acceptance toward digital intervention for post-treatment care. Findings did not take into consideration individual, psychological and socioeconomic factors, even though studies show their significant impacts on melanoma quality of aftercare. Conclusions: Digital interventions may to be used as an adjunct service by clinicians during melanoma post-treatment care, especially in regions that are lower-resourced by practitioners and health infrastructure, such as rural and remote Australia. Technology could be used to reduce the disparity in melanoma incidence, mortality rates and accessibility to post-treatment care management between urban and rural/remote populations.

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