Digital Follow-Up and the Perspective of Patient-Centered Care in Oncology: What's the PROblem?

Frank A Giordano; Grit Welzel; Victor Siefert; Lennart Jahnke; Thomas Ganslandt; Frederik Wenz; Anca-Ligia Grosu; Felix Heinemann; Nils H Nicolay

doi:10.1159/000495294

Digital Follow-Up and the Perspective of Patient-Centered Care in Oncology: What's the PROblem?

Oncology. 2020;98(6):379-385. doi: 10.1159/000495294. Epub 2018 Dec 5.

Authors

Frank A Giordano¹, Grit Welzel², Victor Siefert², Lennart Jahnke³, Thomas Ganslandt⁴, Frederik Wenz², Anca-Ligia Grosu^{5

6}, Felix Heinemann^{5

6}, Nils H Nicolay^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiation Oncology, University Medical Center Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany, frank.giordano@umm.de.
² Department of Radiation Oncology, University Medical Center Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany.
³ Digitalization Office, University Medical Center Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany.
⁴ Heinrich Lanz Center for Digital Medicine, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany.
⁵ Department of Radiation Oncology, University Medical Center Freiburg, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
⁶ German Cancer Consortium, Partner Site Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.

PMID: 30517946
DOI: 10.1159/000495294

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Digital care; Digital follow-up; Patient-reported outcomes.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Medical Oncology / methods*
Neoplasms / drug therapy*
Neoplasms / pathology*
Patient Reported Outcome Measures
Patient-Centered Care / methods*