iManageCancer as a next generation Personal Health Record

Advancements in healthcare practice, limitations of traditional healthcare processes and the need for flexible access to health information all create a continuing demand for electronic health systems everywhere.

The personal health record or PHR concept is patient-centric in the sense that the management of a personal health record is primarily the responsibility of the patient. The patient is the owner of his/her health data, decides with whom he/she wants to share the data for healthcare provision and who will be allowed to use his anonymized data for research purposes.

PHRs provide a complete summary of patients' health history, empowering patients to take more active roles in their own health and make informed decisions while at the same time potentially supporting clinical diagnosis.

The potential of PHRs to improve healthcare delivery and reduce costs has been recognized in many countries worldwide. In recent years many regional and national healthcare networks based on PHRs have been established in Europe and in the US. At the same time PHR research, development and adoption efforts have received significant funding. Due to this global interest and support of electronic personal health records, emerging PHR systems and their associated tools are evolving constantly.

The iManageCancer project will provide a cancer specific self-management platform designed according to the needs of cancer patient groups while in parallel focusing on the wellbeing of the cancer patient with special emphasis on avoiding, early detection and management of adverse events of cancer therapy but also, importantly, on the psycho-emotional evaluation and self-motivated goals.

The platform will be centered in a Personal Health Record, extending Indivo-X PHR, exploiting recent advances on Health Avatars for the individual cancer patient surrounded by mHealth applications designed to encourage the patient, enhance clinician-patient communication, maximize compliance to therapy, inform about drug interactions, and contribute to the management of pain and other side-effects of cancer treatment.

The Health Avatar PHR will regularly monitor the psycho-emotional status of the patient and will periodically record the everyday life experiences of the cancer patient with respect to the therapy side effects, while different groups of patients and their families will share information through diaries.

The PHR will be used to provide the clinician with valuable clinical information about the patients’ cancer state and will help assess adherence to therapy, physiological and psychological status while the platform will recommend targeted informative applications and serious games according to the disease type and psycho-emotional status of the patients in order to promote a positive and healthier psycho-emotional state, and thus reducing anxiety and depression.

Given all the above, the PHR is a key part of the iManageCancer package and we look forward to seeing the impacts it can have on patient’s lives seen in real life.