February 26, 2026Open Access

Remote monitoring instruments in palliative care for people with heart failure: a scoping review

Key Result

No existing remote monitoring instruments simultaneously assess symptoms, wishes, and needs for heart failure patients in palliative care, per 23 studies.

Key Points

To analyze and map existing remote monitoring instruments for heart failure palliative care, focusing on symptoms, wishes, and needs.
Conducted a scoping review following Arksey and O'Malley's framework.
Executed a systematic search across seven databases including PubMed and Embase.
Included publications focused on remote monitoring in heart failure palliative care.
Identified 3820 studies, with 23 meeting inclusion criteria.
Found no instruments that simultaneously assess symptoms, wishes, and needs.
Most instruments focused on physical symptoms, lacking specific design for palliative care.

Structured PICO

What remote monitoring instruments are available to monitor symptoms, wishes, and needs in heart failure patients receiving palliative care?

Population

23 studies focusing on remote monitoring of symptoms, wishes, or needs of patients with heart failure in palliative care

Intervention

Remote monitoring instruments

Outcome

Mapping and analysis of existing instruments used to monitor symptoms, wishes, and needs, and evaluation of their implementation

Current remote monitoring instruments for heart failure palliative care focus primarily on physical symptoms, highlighting a gap in comprehensive tools that also assess patient wishes and needs.

Main Result

Absolute Event Rate: 0% vs 0%

Abstract

AbstractBackground Remote monitoring could improve the management of symptoms, wishes, and needs of patients with heart failure receiving palliative care. However, an overview of existing instruments is lacking, and implementation challenges are poorly understood. Aim To map and analyse existing instruments used to monitor symptoms, wishes, and needs in heart failure palliative care, and to evaluate their implementation. Design This scoping review, conducted as part of the HORIZON Europe-funded RAPHAEL project, followed the framework developed by Arksey and O'Malley. Data sources A systematic search was executed using seven databases (PubMed, Cinahl, Embase, Scopus, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Medline) on December 11, 2024. Eligible publications focused on remote monitoring of symptoms, wishes, or needs of patients with heart failure in palliative care. Results Of the 3820 identified studies, 23 met the inclusion criteria, of which 20 were conducted in Western countries. None of the included studies described a monitoring instrument that simultaneously evaluated symptoms, wishes, and needs. Most instruments (n = 22) focused primarily on monitoring physical symptoms and were not specifically designed for palliative care. Only one instrument monitored wishes and needs, but it did not assess symptoms. Details on implementation were often insufficient. Conclusions Currently no instruments are available that monitor both symptoms as well as identify the wishes and needs of patients with heart failure who receive palliative care. The RAPHAEL project aims to fill this gap by developing an instrument for this purpose whilst assessing its implementation into practice. Registration: Open Science Framework (OSF) (DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/5GAFM)