A handheld chemotherapy symptom management system: results from a preliminary outpatient field trial

Abstract

A symptom management system was developed and implemented on personal digital assistants (PDAs) for use by cancer outpatients in their daily management of chemotherapy symptoms. The system allowed patients to record their symptoms at home and send these data to their cancer centre. Patients could view personalized self-care advice and more general medical information. In addition, cancer care nurses were alerted about significantly high symptom scores and could contact the patient by phone. The system was distributed to a group of patients during two of their chemotherapy cycles. Patient interaction with the system was logged, and both patients and cancer nurses were surveyed via questionnaires and interviews in order to assess expectations of and attitudes towards the technology. Comparison was made of the quantitative and qualitative results so obtained. Implications for computer-assisted symptom management and the method of evaluation of such systems are considered.