Samar Melhem

Research project: Real Time intelligent system to Support People Living With and Beyond cancer

Abstract

There is a growing recognition that People Living With and Beyond Cancer (PLWBC) may experience symptoms and problems related to the disease and its treatment in the months and years following diagnosis including ineffective communications with their healthcare teams and inadequate support that may compromise ongoing care. The use of mobile health (mHealth) to support communications and early detection of problems is well documented in the literature with some studies evaluating its use in supportive cancer care. Despite the positive evidence, the rate of healthcare systems' adoption of technology into routine practice remains slow, and the scalability of m-health interventions is still difficult to attain, this may be in part due to lack of implementation strategies. This research aims at designing, developing and validating a holistic digital platform to serve the needs of PLWBC throughout their journey in Jordan; a developing lower Middle East country. It also aims to evaluate strategies of implementing and integrating m-health solutions into daily practice and its impact on organizational performance.It is postulated that the holistic digital platform will empower patients for self-management activities thus improve patients' outcomes, improve quality of life in addition to increasing the productivity of health professionals, thus maximizing health systems' performance in terms of efficiency and cost-effectiveness.