Home-Based Cancer Symptom Management

Brightoutcome Inc., Buffalo Grove IL

Investigators

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cancer symptoms due to disease progression or side effects caused by cancer treatment are prevalent. Most cancer patients are treated in outpatient settings, having to self-manage these symptoms at home. For a variety of reasons, symptom self-management by patients and their caregivers can be a tremendous burden on themselves, resulting in suboptimal patient outcomes and increased healthcare costs due to unnecessary hospitalizations or clinic visits. The goal of this project is to develop a home-based Cancer Symptom Management (CSM) system to promote patient self-management of cancer symptoms and treatment side effects and facilitate remote management by the care team. The anticipated benefits include improved patient self-reported outcomes, better self-efficacy, better patient-provider communication, and reduced hospital stays/clinic visits. This is a Fast Track application. Our Phase I aims include: 1) the collection and analysis of system requirements via focus groups and interviews; 2) the design and development of a working prototype via iterative user- centric design and object-oriented software development methodologies; and 3) the evaluation of system usability and user acceptance via a small-scale pilot test. Our Phase II aims include: 1) the development of the final product by adding multimedia patient education contents and by thoroughly examining system architecture level issues such as performance, scalability, and maintainability; and 2) a larger-scale randomized controlled trial at two clinical sites to evaluate the efficacy of our symptom management solution.