JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Many patients with cancer have unmet information needs during their illness. Smart devices, such as smart phones and tablet computers, provide an opportunity to deliver information to patients remotely. We aimed to develop an app intervention to help patients with cancer to meet their illness-related information needs in non-inpatient settings. As well as in depth exploration of the issues faced by the target users of a potential intervention, it is important to gain an understanding of the context in which it will be used and the potential influences on the intervention. The support of clinicians will be key to the successful implementation of this type of app in practice and second to patients themselves, clinicians have an awareness of their patients’ needs and can provide further insight into the type of app and features that might be most beneficial.

Objective:

This study explored the views of cancer clinicians on this type of intervention and whether they would support the use of an app in cancer care. Specifically, the perceived acceptability of an app, useful app features, and the potential benefits and disadvantages of, and barriers to, app use were explored.

Methods:

Twenty qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 clinicians from urological, colorectal, breast, or gynecological cancer clinics across two hospitals in South Wales. Interviews were audio-taped, transcribed, and analysed using thematic analysis.

Results:

Clinicians anticipated that many patients would want to use an app for cancer care and felt it would be acceptable for patients to use such an app, including in consultations. The benefits of this type of app were anticipated to be a more informed patient, an increased sense of control for patients, better doctor-patient communication, and a more efficient and effective consultation. In contrast, an increase in clinicians’ workload and poorer communication in consultations, depending on included app features, were identified as potential disadvantages. The anticipated barriers to app use included patients’ age and prior experience with smart technology, access to smart devices, confidentiality of information, and an avoidant coping approach to their condition.

Conclusions:

This study suggests that there would be support from clinicians for their patients to use an app to help them to meet their information needs, both at home and during consultations. This study highlights some of the potential barriers for this type of intervention in practice, which could be minimised during intervention design.