Negotiating Digital Technologies in Palliative Home Care

Most Europeans wish to spend their final hours at home, surrounded by loved ones.

Specialist palliative home care services have been established to fulfill this wish, even for patients facing severe terminal illnesses.

The sociological research project NEDIPAL: Negotiating Digital Technologies in Palliative Home Care aims to better understand the intricacies and challenges of using digital technologies such as teleconsultations, apps, wearables, and artificial intelligence to make palliative home care more accessible to a broader range of patient groups, while also enhancing its economic and environmental sustainability.Current research typically views digital technology usage in palliative home care either from the viewpoint of patients and family caregivers or of professionals, with both seeming decoupled from one another.

In contrast, NEDIPAL examines the co-production of palliative home care by professionals in collaboration with patients and family caregivers, through the lens of systems and organizational theory.

The sociological project transcends disciplinary boundaries by integrating insights from health services research, palliative medicine, communication, and digital inclusion.The research will involve qualitative on-site field studies in the Belgian region of Wallonia at five interdisciplinary quipes de soutien domicile.

NEDIPAL is hosted by BRISPO, an interdisciplinary research center specializing in digitalization, health, life course, and aging.With my supervisors international experience and unique competence, along with my prior research in palliative home care and experience in France, I am confident that I will achieve NEDIPALs research and training objectives and position myself as a leader in research on the digitalization of palliative care.

This project will prepare me for achieving my mid-term career goal of working in Belgium or France and help me advance my non-academic career as an expert in digital health services.