Leah Lawrence

Cancer Nursing Today nonprod

A large community oncology practice was able to successfully implement an electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePRO)-based digital symptom monitoring platform, allowing patients to submit information about their distress and symptoms.&ldquo;Quality care for patients with cancer requires open lines of communication between patients and their care teams,&rdquo; researchers wrote in JCO Oncology Practice. &ldquo;Real-time patient reporting of issues and concerns and timely clinician responses are necessary to improve patient outcomes.&rdquo;Members of the Highlands Oncology Group recently reported on the implementation of an ePRO-based digital symptom monitoring platform. The cloud-based system allowed patients to &ldquo;submit scheduled and unscheduled reports of their distress and specific symptoms using either a symptom reporting application, which can be used on a smartphone or tablet, or an interactive voice response (IVR) interface (telephone report).&rdquo;In about 17 months, 923 patients were successfully enrolled in the use of this program. Retention rates were high with 94% at 3 months, 88% at 6 months, 73% at 9 months, and 67% at 12 months, respectively. Retention was significantly higher at 12 months among patients older than 65 (P=.0011).Of the ePRO reports submitted, which exceeded 25,000, about half (49%) were greater than the predefined alert thresholds and 8% included severe symptoms. Most patients also submitted 2 or more reports each month.Members of the nursing team responded within 24 hours by telephone to about one-third (31.2%) of reports.&ldquo;Not all alerts generated a telephone call,&rdquo; the researchers explained. &ldquo;Clinical judgment was exercised by nurses during the evaluation of patient reports including all reports defined as severe.&rdquo;The most common alert-generating symptoms were high levels of distress, pain, nausea, weakness, diarrhea, dyspnea, and fatigue. Only 6.4% of reports required an office evaluation within 72 hours.&ldquo;This single-center experience supports the hypothesis that implementing an ePRO-based digital symptom monitoring platform is feasible in routine clinical practice at a large scale,&rdquo; the researchers concluded. &ldquo;We provide evidence that patients can remain engaged over a prolonged period of time with regular reporting and low attrition.&rdquo;<h3>Reference</h3><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36240475/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Feasibility of large-scale implementation of an electronic patient-reported outcome remote monitoring system for patients on active treatment at a community cancer center.</a>

Electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes Platform Successfully Implemented at Community Practice

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Most patient reported issues were successfully resolved by nurses. But how was patient engagement? 

Electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes Platform Successfully Implemented at Community Practice 

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