By Lucía Sagarra-Romero
Breast cancer and its treatment cause emotional trauma and health issues that impact a patient’s daily life. (1) The Owise breast cancer app is an online system that supports any patient with breast cancer to manage their health problems during and after their treatment. It provides the patient with a clear overview of their condition, and upcoming treatments and appointments, whilst also monitoring how the patient feels. The app is designed to provide support to patients from diagnosis, allowing them to manage their health condition at home, using their smartphone, tablet or computer.
OWise breast cancer app features
Using the app, patients can create diary entries to store (1) treatment notes, (2) voice recordings, (3) photos and (4) appointments in one place, with the ability to send a report to their doctor at any time throughout their treatment allowing them to receive personalised care. It offers a “trend side-effect category”, through which patients can describe their current feelings based on an exhaustive list of side effects including: fatigue, pain (general or extremities) headache, sleep quality, appetite, sickness, lymphedema, sore mouth (ulcers), skin rash, physical effort, brain function, weight, body temperature, stool, urination (urine colour) (image 1). Evidence-based educational information is also readily available for the patient via the app.
Image 1. Screenshot of the app for self-reporting of disease side effects.
With patient consent, the data collected from the app could also be considered as a useful tool to improve support available to the patient, and facilitate disease monitoring and surveillance (2).
Pros
- Free
- 24 hour medical support
- Personalised medical support
- Simple to use and portable
- Provides quality information
- Easy to upload to the personal profile audio recording and photos (i.e. ulcers)
- Currently only available in the Netherlands and England
Cons
- Not easy to use for all ages or level of education
- Available in English and Dutch only
- Data protection guarantee (patient privacy information)
Lucía Sagarra Romero is a Lecturer and Researcher in Sport Sciences at the Faculty of Health Sciences of San Jorge University (Spain). She specialises in exercise programming and special populations. Affiliation: Universidad San Jorge, Villanueva de Gállego, Zaragoza, Spain. (email: lsagarra@usj.es).
Competing interests
None declared
References
- Schmid-Buchi S, Halfens RJ, Muller M, Dassen T, van den Borne B. Factors associated with supportive care needs of patients under treatment for breast cancer. Eur J Oncol Nurs. 2013;17(1):22-9.
- WHO-ITU National eHealth Strategy Toolkit. Steering committee: Najeeb Al-Shorbaji, J. D. W. M. M., Hani Eskandar (ITU). 2012.