Open AccessDigital Follow-Up and the Perspective of Patient-Centered Care in Oncology: What’s the PROblem?
Author(s) -
Frank A. Giordano,
Grit Welzel,
Victor Siefert,
L. Jahnke,
Thomas Ganslandt,
Frederik Wenz,
AncaLigia Grosu,
Felix Heinemann,
Nils H. Nicolay
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.987
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 1423-0232
pISSN - 0030-2414
DOI - 10.1159/000495294
Subject(s) - medicine , patient care , perspective (graphical) , intensive care medicine , clinical trial , medical physics , medline , variety (cybernetics) , biomarker , randomized controlled trial , oncology , computer science , nursing , artificial intelligence , biochemistry , chemistry , political science , law
There is accumulating evidence from randomized trials suggesting that digital patient-centered care allows a more reliable detection of tumour-related symptoms and adverse events - with a direct impact on overall survival. Consequently, a variety of unsynchronized approaches were kicked off to (electronically) measure patient-reported outcomes (PROs). Despite increasing evidence that PRO data are highly relevant for patient care, the data generated in these initial projects lack standardized processing pathways in order to impact clinical routine; therefore, potential future routine PRO assessments require adequate analysis, storage and processing to allow a robust, reproducible and reliable incorporation into routine clinical decision-making. Here, we discuss relevant challenges of digital follow-up that need to be tackled to render PRO data as relevant to physicians as laboratory or biomarker data.