To Örebro University

Introduction: For immediate and continuous dialogue between patients and caregivers new approaches in modern technology are encouraged today. In cooperation with a Swedish health management company, we developed an interactive mobile phone application for the assessment of symptom distress, evidence-based self-care advice and an alerting function of severe symptoms with instant access to professionals in real time. By using this technique patients can communicate symptoms with instant support while cared for out-side hospital but at the same time reassured that their condition is monitored by the professionals. The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the application for patients with prostate cancer during radiotherapy and for the involved health care staff.

Material and Methods: Evidence-based symptoms and related selfcareadvices were implemented in the application after literature review and interviews with patients and health care professionals. Nine patients diagnosed with prostate cancer undergoing radiotherapy treatment were recruited to test the application for two weeks. The patients reported in the electronic symptom questionnaire daily. After the two weeks they were interviewed about their experience. Nurses directly involved in the care and treatment of the participating patients were interviewed at the end of study.

Results: Overall, patients and nurses reported positive experiences of using the mobile phone system. The patients considered the application helpful and easy to use although there were some suggestions for further development of the electronic questionnaire. Most of the patients had read the self-care advice and found them useful. The alerting system was activated in several cases; the nurses found it useful to identify and manage problematic symptoms early and the patients felt safe and well cared for. Some of the nurses considered the monitoring system time-consuming and made suggestions for improvement.

Conclusions: Both patients and nurses could see the potential for using the mobile application in clinical practice. The system enables the involvement of the patients and the alerts showed problematic symptoms promoting timely interventions. The results support further development and testing of the system in full-scale.