A Wireless Health Outcomes Monitoring System (WHOMS): development and field testing with cancer patients using mobile phones.
A Wireless Health Outcomes Monitoring System (WHOMS): development and field testing with cancer patients using mobile phones.
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DOI：
10.1186/1472-6947-4-7
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发表时间：
2004-06-15
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
Tamburini, Marcello
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bielli, Emilia;Carminati, Fabio;Tamburini, Marcello
背景：健康相关生活质量评估广泛应用于临床研究，但很少应用于临床实践。包括管理印刷问卷的实际困难在内的障碍限制了它们的使用。远程医疗技术可以减少这些障碍，并鼓励就患者症状和生活质量监测进行更好的医患互动。本研究的目的是开发一种使用手机或互联网传输患者自我报告结果的新系统，并测试患者是否能够并且愿意通过手机使用该系统。 方法：我们开发了无线健康结果监测系统的原型，该系统允许医疗管理团队向患者发送结构化调查问卷。患者的答案将直接发送到医疗团队可立即访问的授权网站，并以图形格式显示，突出显示患者的健康状况。在本研究中，97 名癌症住院患者被要求填写一份包含 10 项的调查问卷。调查问卷通过手机显示屏发送，患者通过手机键盘进行回答。结果：97 名患者中，56 名（58%）尝试填写问卷，56 名患者全部完成。患者未回答的问题仅占总数的 6%。四十一名 (42%) 患者拒绝参加，主要是因为他们不熟悉手机的使用。与完成问卷的患者相比，拒绝参与的患者年龄较大，受教育年限较少，对新的通讯技术（手机通话、手机短信、互联网、电子邮件）不太熟悉。结论：超过一半的患者使用手机自行完成问卷。随着可合并到系统中的多通道通信的使用，这一比例可能会增加。如果患者的伴侣和/或家人能够协助患者使用该技术，这一比例也可能会增加。这些初步结果鼓励进一步研究，以确定该系统可用于患者远程监测的特定疾病或情况。这样的系统可能会更早地发现患者的痛苦，并适时启动干预措施。
BACKGROUND: Health-Related Quality of Life assessment is widely used in clinical research, but rarely in clinical practice. Barriers including practical difficulties administering printed questionnaires have limited their use. Telehealth technology could reduce these barriers and encourage better doctor-patient interaction regarding patient symptoms and quality-of-life monitoring. The aim of this study was to develop a new system for transmitting patients' self-reported outcomes using mobile phones or the internet, and to test whether patients can and will use the system via a mobile phone.METHODS: We have developed a prototype of a Wireless Health Outcomes Monitoring System, which allows structured questionnaires to be sent to the patient by their medical management team. The patients' answers are directly sent to an authorised website immediately accessible by the medical team, and are displayed in a graphic format that highlights the patient's state of health. In the present study, 97 cancer inpatients were asked to complete a ten-item questionnaire. The questionnaire was delivered by display on a mobile phone, and was answered by the patients using the mobile phone keypad.RESULTS: Of the 97 patients, 56 (58%) attempted the questionnaire, and all of these 56 completed it. Only 6% of the total number of questions were left unanswered by patients. Forty-one (42%) patients refused to participate, mostly due to their lack of familiarity with mobile phone use. Compared with those who completed the questionnaire, patients who refused to participate were older, had fewer years of education and were less familiar with new communications technology (mobile phone calls, mobile phone SMS, internet, email).CONCLUSION: More than half of the patients self-completed the questionnaire using the mobile phone. This proportion may increase with the use of multichannel communications which can be incorporated into the system. The proportion may also increase if the patient's partner and/or family were able to assist the patient with using the technology. These preliminary results encourage further studies to identify specific diseases or circumstances where this system could be useful in patients' distance monitoring. Such a system is likely to detect patient suffering earlier, and to activate a well-timed intervention.