Article Text
Abstract
Objectives The aim of this study was to report our initial experience with a mobile app of electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) for patients undergoing treatment for gynecologic malignancies.
Methods The target patients were introduced to a mobile app in which they could answer to pre-selected questions. The questions included the quantification of fatigue, pain, anxiety, dizziness, hair loss, peripheral numbness, tingling, nausea, myalgia, depression, insomnia and others. Two different sets of questions were used for surgery and chemotherapy.
Results A total of 61 patients reported more than 29,000 data points. The mean ages were 53.0 ± 12.2 years old for the surgery group and 54 ± 13.2 years old for the chemotherapy group. The median numbers of app use during the course of treatment was 10 and 13 for the surgery and chemotherapy groups, respectively. The mean duration of app use to complete each report was 8 ± 13 minutes for the surgery and 7 ± 12 minutes for the chemotherapy groups. This did not differ by age groups, suggesting that there were no difficulties of using the app for any specific age group. ePRO was able to detect the occurrence of both expected and unexpected side effects. In addition, a gradual increase in the severity of side effects over the course of treatment, especially for those who received chemotherapy, could be observed.
Conclusions ePRO have a great potential to improve patient care in gynecologic oncology by providing a comprehensive documentation of symptoms and side effects.