The Growing Role of Digital Health Tools in the Care of Patients with Cancer: Current Use, Future Opportunities, and Barriers to Effective Implementation.

Abstract

This article aims to describe the ways in which digital health technologies are currently being used to improve the delivery of cancer care, highlight opportunities to expand their use, and discuss barriers to effective and equitable implementation. The utilization of digital health tools and development of novel care delivery models that leverage such tools is expanding. Recent studies have shown feasibility and increased implementation in the setting of oncologic care. With technological advances and key policy changes, utilization of digital health tools has greatly increased over the past two decades and transformed how cancer care is delivered. As digital health tools are expanded and refined, there is potential for improved access to and quality and efficiency of cancer care. However, careful consideration should be given to key barriers of digital health tool adoption, such as infrastructural, patient-level, and health systems-level challenges, to ensure equitable access to care and improvement in health outcomes.