Instituto de Tecnologías para la Innovación en Salud y Bienestar, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Andrés Bello, Viña del Mar, Chile.
Centro para la Prevención y el Control del Cáncer, Santiago, Chile.
J Med Internet Res. 2023 Nov 27;25:e45968. doi: 10.2196/45968.
The World Health Organization recommends incorporating patient-reported experience measures and patient-reported outcome measures to ensure care processes. New technologies, such as mobile apps, could help report and monitor patients' adverse effects and doubts during treatment. However, engaging patients in the daily use of mobile apps is a challenge that must be addressed in accordance with the needs of people.
We present a qualitative case study documenting the process of identifying the information needs of breast cancer patients and health care professionals during the treatment process in a Chilean cancer institution. The study aims to identify patients' information requirements for integration into a mobile app that accompanies patients throughout their treatment while also providing features for reporting adverse symptoms.
We conducted focus groups with breast cancer patients who were undergoing chemotherapy (n=3) or who completed chemotherapy between 3 months and 1 year (n=1). We also surveyed health care professionals (n=9) who were involved in patient care and who belonged to the oncology committee of the cancer center where the study took place. Content analysis was applied to the responses to categorize the information needs and the means to satisfy them. A user interface was designed according to the findings of the focus groups and was assessed by 3 trained information system and user interaction design experts from 2 countries, using heuristic evaluation guidelines for mobile apps.
Patients' information needs were classified into 4 areas: an overview of the disease, information on treatment and day-to-day affairs, assistance on the normality and abnormality of symptoms during treatment, and symptoms relevant to report. Health care professionals required patients to be provided with information on the administrative and financial process. We noted that the active involvement of the following 4 main actors is required to satisfy the information needs: patients, caregivers, social network moderators, and health professionals. Seven usability guidelines were extracted from the heuristic evaluation recommendations.
A mobile app that seeks to accompany breast cancer patients to report symptoms requires the involvement of multiple participants to handle the reports and day-to-day information needs. User interfaces must be designed with consideration of the patient's social conventions and the emotional load of the disease information.
世界卫生组织建议纳入患者报告的体验指标和患者报告的结果指标，以确保护理过程。新技术，如移动应用程序，可以帮助报告和监测患者在治疗过程中的不良反应和疑虑。然而，让患者日常使用移动应用程序是一个必须根据人们的需求来解决的挑战。
我们展示了一个定性案例研究，记录了在智利一家癌症机构中确定乳腺癌患者和医疗保健专业人员在治疗过程中信息需求的过程。该研究旨在确定患者在移动应用程序中集成信息的需求，该应用程序将伴随患者完成整个治疗过程，同时提供报告不良反应症状的功能。
我们对正在接受化疗的乳腺癌患者（n=3）或在 3 个月至 1 年内完成化疗的患者（n=1）进行了焦点小组讨论。我们还对参与患者护理并属于该研究所在癌症中心肿瘤委员会的医疗保健专业人员（n=9）进行了调查。对回答进行了内容分析，以对信息需求和满足这些需求的方法进行分类。根据焦点小组的结果设计了用户界面，并由来自 2 个国家的 3 名经过培训的信息系统和用户交互设计专家根据移动应用程序的启发式评估指南进行评估。
患者的信息需求分为 4 个领域：疾病概述、治疗和日常事务信息、治疗期间症状正常和异常的帮助、以及与报告相关的症状。医疗保健专业人员需要为患者提供有关行政和财务流程的信息。我们注意到，为了满足信息需求，需要以下 4 个主要参与者的积极参与：患者、护理人员、社交网络管理员和卫生专业人员。从启发式评估建议中提取了 7 条可用性指南。
旨在伴随乳腺癌患者报告症状的移动应用程序需要涉及多个参与者来处理报告和日常信息需求。用户界面的设计必须考虑到患者的社会习俗和疾病信息的情感负担。
