Enhancing Patient-Physician Experience in the Digital Era: A Review of Mobile Health Applications for Oncology Patients

Abstract

Telehealth, until recently, has been underutilized. With the pandemic, telehealth has quickly taken on new prominence that will likely sustain in the post-pandemic setting. Mobile health applications (apps) can be used as part of the oncologic telehealth encounter to monitor patient-reported outcomes (PROs), recorded sensor data and facilitate rapid communication. The goal of this study was to describe the characteristics of patient-centered oncology apps and associated functionalities that can improve outcomes and enhance patient-physician relationships.A review of apps with symptom tracking capabilities available on the iOS-based App Store and Android-based Play Store was completed in late 2020. The search terms used included: cancer, oncology, symptom tracker, radiation oncology, radiotherapy and radiation therapy. Apps were initially included if they had symptom tracking capabilities, and were further evaluated to assess patient journaling, wearable device syncing, bi-directional communication, and specificity for radiation oncology. Functionalities were tallied and compared using Microsoft Excel to examine totals and percentage distributions.The primary search in the app stores populated 1240 unique applications in English with 91 included in the secondary selection process after title and descriptive screening. After downloading free apps to confirm capabilities, 33 apps were eligible for the study. Of the 33 included apps, 21 (63.60%) were general symptom trackers, and 12 (36.40%) were oncology specific. None of the oncology-specific symptom tracking apps were specific for radiation oncology, but 6 (50%) of the oncology-specific apps allowed for the addition of custom symptoms. Of the 12 oncology-specific apps, 7 (58.3%) allowed for patient journaling, 3 (25%) could sync data from wearable devices, and 2 (16.7%) allowed for bi-directional communication between the patient and medical team. Of the 2 apps that included bi-directional communication, 1 (50%) app provided a chat function, and 1 (50%) app provided a video function. Comparisons of the prevalence of important functionalities between general symptom and oncology symptom trackers is shown in Table 1.We present a comprehensive characterization of oncology-specific apps currently available. Apps focused on oncology are limited and largely unexplored. Future app development to optimize PRO collection, mobile sensor data assessment, and integration with telehealth encounters in needed. Such data can increase symptom recognition, provide timely feedback and improve quality of data collection for oncologists.