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Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research

Date Submitted: Jan 22, 2022
Open Peer Review Period: Jan 22, 2022 - Jan 28, 2022
Date Accepted: Feb 28, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Apr 18, 2022
(closed for review but you can still tweet)

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

An mHealth Self-management System for Support Children With Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia and Their Caregivers: Qualitative Co-design Study

Mehdizadeh H, Asadi F, Emami H, Mehrvar A, Nazemi E

An mHealth Self-management System for Support Children With Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia and Their Caregivers: Qualitative Co-design Study

JMIR Form Res 2022;6(4):e36721

DOI: 10.2196/36721

PMID: 35228195

PMCID: 9055480

mHealth Self-Management System to Supporting Children with a Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL) and their caregivers in low-middle income country: Qualitative Co-Design Study

  • Hamed Mehdizadeh; 
  • Farkhondeh Asadi; 
  • Hassan Emami; 
  • Azim Mehrvar; 
  • Eslam Nazemi

ABSTRACT

Background:

The unique features of smartphones have extended the use of smartphones in different fields, especially in the healthcare domain. These features offer new opportunities to support patients with chronic conditions by providing information, education, and self-management skills. We developed a digital self-management system for supporting children with cancer and their caregivers, in Iran (LMIC).

Objective:

This study aimed to the development and preliminary evaluation of Cancer Self-management system (CanSelfMan) tailored to the needs of children with cancer and their parents/caregivers.

Methods:

We recruited participants from a children's cancer treatment center (MAHAK) in Iran. This study was conducted in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team in six stages: 1) requirement analysis, 2) conformity assessment, 3) preparing educational content, 4) app prototyping, 5) preliminary evaluation, and finally developing the final version of CanSelfMan.

Results:

By following a user-centered design approach, we developed a cancer self-management system that includes a mobile app and a web-based dashboard. Mobile app comprised five main modules (knowledge base, self-management tips, self-assessment report, ask a question, and reminder) that provide access to reliable information about ALL and the self-management skills required for side-effect measurement and reporting. A web-based dashboard was also developed for Oncologists and included a dashboard for monitoring the users’ symptoms and answering their questions.

Conclusions:

CanSelfMan can support these groups by providing access to reliable information about cancer and side effects, facilitating communication between child/parents and the healthcare providers, and also helping promote medication adherence through a reminder function. The active participation of the target group can help to identify their needs. So through the involvement of stakeholders such as patients, caregivers, and oncologists in the design process, we improved usability and make sure that the final product is useful. This application is now ready to proceed with feasibility studies.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Mehdizadeh H, Asadi F, Emami H, Mehrvar A, Nazemi E

An mHealth Self-management System for Support Children With Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia and Their Caregivers: Qualitative Co-design Study

JMIR Form Res 2022;6(4):e36721

DOI: 10.2196/36721

PMID: 35228195

PMCID: 9055480

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© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.