Katsaros Dimos, Hawthorne James, Patel Jay, Pothier Kaitlin, Aungst Timothy, Franzese Chris
Matchstick LLC, Boonton, NJ, United States.
College of Pharmacy, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, United States.
JMIR Cancer. 2022 Jun 24;8(2):e36258. doi: 10.2196/36258.
Increased cancer prevalence and survival rates coupled with earlier patient discharges from hospitals have created a greater need for social support. Cancer care is both short term and long term, requiring acute treatments, treatments for remission, and long-term screenings and treatment regimens. Health care systems are already overwhelmed and often struggle to provide social support systems for everyone. Caregivers are limited in number, and even when they are available, they often lack necessary information, skills, or resources to meet the needs of patients with cancer. The act of caregiving presents various challenges, and caregivers themselves often need social support as well. Despite these needs, most social support programs are targeted toward patients alone. Given the prevalence of cancer and known needs of these patients and their caregivers, the ability to identify those who need social support is crucial. Further, the scalability and overall availability of social support programs is vital for successful patient care. This paper establishes the benefits of social support for both patients and caregivers coping with cancer treatments, explores innovative ways of identifying patients who may need social support using digital tools, and reviews potential advantages of digital social support programs.
癌症患病率和生存率的上升，再加上患者更早出院，使得对社会支持的需求更大。癌症护理既有短期需求，也有长期需求，需要进行急性治疗、缓解治疗以及长期筛查和治疗方案。医疗保健系统已经不堪重负，往往难以给每个人提供社会支持系统。护理人员数量有限，即便有护理人员，他们也常常缺乏满足癌症患者需求所需的信息、技能或资源。护理工作面临各种挑战，护理人员自身往往也需要社会支持。尽管有这些需求，但大多数社会支持项目仅针对患者。鉴于癌症的普遍性以及这些患者及其护理人员已知的需求，识别出那些需要社会支持的人至关重要。此外，社会支持项目的可扩展性和整体可及性对于成功的患者护理至关重要。本文阐述了社会支持对应对癌症治疗的患者和护理人员的益处，探索了使用数字工具识别可能需要社会支持的患者的创新方法，并审视了数字社会支持项目的潜在优势。
