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. 2022 Dec 22;4(1):e000130.
doi: 10.1136/bmjsit-2021-000130. eCollection 2022.

Integration of a personalised mobile health (mHealth) application into the care of patients with brain tumours: proof-of-concept study (IDEAL stage 1)

Andrew Gvozdanovic  1 , Felix Jozsa  1 , Naomi Fersht  2 , Patrick James Grover  1 , Georgina Kirby  3 , Neil Kitchen  1 , Riccardo Mangiapelo  3 , Andrew McEvoy  1 , Anna Miserocchi  1 , Rayna Patel  3 , Lewis Thorne  1 , Norman Williams  4 , Michael Kosmin  2 , Hani J Marcus  1
Affiliations

Integration of a personalised mobile health (mHealth) application into the care of patients with brain tumours: proof-of-concept study (IDEAL stage 1)

Andrew Gvozdanovic et al. BMJ Surg Interv Health Technol. .

Abstract

Objectives: Brain tumours lead to significant morbidity including a neurocognitive, physical and psychological burden of disease. The extent to which they impact the multiple domains of health is difficult to capture leading to a significant degree of unmet needs. Mobile health tools such as Vinehealth have the potential to identify and address these needs through real-world data generation and delivery of personalised educational material and therapies. We aimed to establish the feasibility of Vinehealth integration into brain tumour care, its ability to collect real-world and (electronic) patient-recorded outcome (ePRO) data, and subjective improvement in care.

Design: A mixed-methodology IDEAL stage 1 study.

Setting: A single tertiary care centre.

Participants: Six patients consented and four downloaded and engaged with the mHealth application throughout the 12 weeks of the study.

Main outcome measures: Over a 12-week period, we collected real-world and ePRO data via Vinehealth. We assessed qualitative feedback from mixed-methodology surveys and semistructured interviews at recruitment and after 2 weeks.

Results: 565 data points were captured including, but not limited to: symptoms, activity, well-being and medication. EORTC QLQ-BN20 and EQ-5D-5L completion rates (54% and 46%) were impacted by technical issues; 100% completion rates were seen when ePROs were received. More brain cancer tumour-specific content was requested. All participants recommended the application and felt it improved care.

Conclusions: Our findings indicate value in an application to holistically support patients living with brain cancer tumours and established the feasibility and safety of further studies to more rigorously assess this.

Keywords: health care quality, access, and evaluation; health technology; patient outcome assessment; process assessment (health care).

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: GK, RP and RM are/were all employees of Vinehealth throughout the duration of the study. No other conflicts of interest declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Images demonstrate the Vinehealth application including the home screen where different activities, digital therapeutics and information can be quickly assessed. The My Care page allows patients to view their medications and appointments on a specific day. A visual representation of symptom logging with a Visual Analogue Scale is visible. The report screen displays an overall summary of all of the data a user has recorded in a time period, accessible via a calendar view.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Total number of symptoms recorded in a 7-day (week) period over 12 weeks.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Demonstrates the total recorded activities (including steps) in a 7-day (week) period over 12 weeks.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Total number of articles read in a 7-day (week) period over 12 weeks.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Total number of ‘well beings’ recorded in a 7-day (week) period over 12 weeks.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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