Breast cancer awareness through smart mobile healthcare applications from Indian doctors' perspective

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, with nearly 14.1 million cases diagnosed globally in 2012. In the same year, there were 8.2 million deaths from cancer in the world making breast cancer the second most common cancer overall. Also, India has one of the highest cases of breast cancer. According to WHO, for the year 2012, an estimated 144,937 women in India were newly detected with breast cancer and 70,218 women died of breast cancer in the same year, more than any other country in the world. This indicates a beginning of an epidemic which requires effective intervention to reduce the incidence of breast cancer, thereby reducing mortality. In the last few years, a lot of global initiatives on breast cancer have been taken by the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Breast Cancer Research Foundation (IBCRF) and Pink Ribbon International (PBI). These international bodies are addressing and creating awareness on breast cancer. One such initiative is the mobile applications that can can provide people with breast cancer, survivors, and caregivers convenient resources and tools to guide them through their treatment and keep their life more organized. Many researchers and scientists have come up with mobile health (m-health) apps to prevent and promote breast cancer awareness to the public. Though there are many mobile apps available on itunes and google play, people are not aware of the apps' purpose or it is not promoted well. The main purpose of this article is to analyse how breast cancer health apps (such as iBreastCheck) can help in primary prevention, early diagnosis and palliative care of breast cancer in India from doctors' perspective. Focus group and questionnaire survey was carried out to understand the adoption and acceptance of mobile health apps for breast cancer awareness by doctors for the Indian public. The focus group and the online survey statistical results demonstrates the need and importance of using mobile health apps to prevent, detect and treat breast cancer, which means Indian doctors have a positive approach towards recommending breast cancer mobile health apps to women.