Abstract
PurposeThe primary aim of the study was to develop and investigate a patient interactive digital support (an app) for patients on adjuvant endocrine breast cancer treatment. Patient’s interactive digital applications are a fast-growing area for research and development. In general, patients want more information and support with regard to their diagnosis, treatment and self-care. At the same time, the health care system has limited resources for follow-up. Our primary endpoints were usability of the app and if it added any value to the patients.MethodsWe designed and constructed a prototype, in dialogue with patients, containing four main modules for registration of drug compliance, performed physical exercise, self-care activities, and questions on health and quality of life. The app was then tested by patients and improved further before we completed a pilot study in which 15 patients used the app for 3 months.ResultsPatients perceived the app easy to use with a very high median system usability score of 88.8, range 30–100. The 15 women registered in total 4251 times, range 118 to 372. The majority of registrations concerned compliance (adherence to treatment) and physical exercise.ConclusionThe app was perceived easy to use and of support in every-day life of breast cancer survivors. How to best integrate electronically collected patient reported outcome measures in clinical routine needs to be further studied, and future research will show if it will be cost-effective in terms of better health outcome and less resource use.
Highlights
Breast cancer treatment is successful in the majority of cases due to the last decades’ development of new drugs
We know from previous literature that many women stop to take their endocrine treatment before the recommended length of time
A retrospective study examining treatment adherence in over 780 breast cancer patients showed that non-adherence to radiation therapy, chemotherapy and endocrine therapy was 4%, 7% and 37% respectively [2]
Summary
Breast cancer treatment is successful in the majority of cases due to the last decades’ development of new drugs. We know from previous literature that many women stop to take their endocrine treatment before the recommended length of time. A retrospective study examining treatment adherence in over 780 breast cancer patients showed that non-adherence to radiation therapy, chemotherapy and endocrine therapy (tamoxifen) was 4%, 7% and 37% respectively [2]. Two more retrospective studies, including 1451 and 8769 breast cancer patients showed close to 50% non-adherence to endocrine therapy [3, 4]. Registry research of prescribed drugs show that a lot of women with previous breast cancer do not use their prescription, without their doctors’ knowledge [5, 6]
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