Background:
In recent years, patients’ use of health information technology has increased and has been a catalyst for patient empowerment.
Aim: The purpose of this project was to develop a user-friendly iPhone application targeted to the general population with the objective to enhance patient’s responsibility towards their own health and adherence to official cancer screening guidelines.
Methods:
International, national and provincial official cancer screening recommendations were reviewed and combined to develop a comprehensive province-adapted screening program. Guidelines from the NCCN for detection, prevention and risk reduction of breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, prostate and genetic familial high-risk assessment for breast and ovarian cancer were collected. Other cancer agency screening programs for breast, cervical, colon, hereditary cancer were also collected.
Results:
An iPhone application consisting of a short interactive questionnaire was developed in an application format for the iPhone. The questionnaire includes assessment of patients risks factors such as gender, age as well as personal and family medical history. An automatic computation of patients’ individual risks allows for instantaneous formulation of an individualized cancer screening recommendations
Conclusions:
An iPhone application consisting of a short interactive questionnaire was developed in an application format for the iPhone. The questionnaire includes assessment of patients risks factors such as gender, age as well as personal and family medical history. An automatic computation of patients’ individual risks allows for instantaneous formulation of an individualized cancer screening recommendations. The second phase of this project w involved assessment of hospital users’ satisfaction with this application and adherence to screening programs using a short multiple choice survey. The survey aimed at evaluating user friendliness of the application, self assessment impact on empowerment, anxiety induction as as as conformity to recommandations. The results of the survey are currently being analyzed and will be presented.