Allies not enemies-creating amore empathetic and uplifting patient experience through technology and art.

Abstract

To understand whether art and technology (mainly conversational agents) may help oncology patients to experience amore humanized journey. This narrative review encompasses acomprehensive examination of the existing literature in this field by amulticenter, multidisciplinary, and multiprofessional team aiming to analyze the current developments and potential future directions of using art and technology for patient engagement. We identified three major themes of patient engagement with art and three major themes of patient engagement with technologies. Two real-case scenarios are reported from our experience to practically envision how findings from the literature can be implemented in different contexts. Art therapy and technologies can be ancillary supports for healthcare professionals but are not substitutive of their expertise and responsibilities. Such tools may help to convey amore empathetic and uplifting patient journey if properly integrated within clinical practice, whereby the humanistic touch of medicine remains pivotal.