Developing "Information Assistant": A Smartphone Application to Meet the Personalized Information Needs of Women with Breast Cancer.

Breast cancer presents specific challenges both physically and psychologically to women. Women living with breast cancer frequently do not receive adequate information support and they urgently need professional assistance that help them to cope and adjust to challenges. This paper documents the process of developing a smartphone application (app) "Information Assistant" for women with breast cancer in China. First, individual interviews were used to explore and understand the real experience of breast cancer patients and their diverse information needs during different stages of diagnosis and treatment. Next, expert working group discussions and the Delphi technique, including breast cancer care physicians, nurses and software engineers, were used to draft the structure and contents of the m-health based information support program. Then, these feedbacks were used to develop "Information Assistant" app. This app has five modules: personalized information recommendation, category knowledge center, headline information browsing, newest information browsing and information searching.