A Modular Mobile Health App for Personalized Rehabilitation Throughout the Breast Cancer Care Continuum: Development Study

Abstract

Background Although many mobile health (mHealth) apps have evolved as support tools for self-management of breast cancer, limited studies have developed a comprehensive app and described the algorithms for personalized rehabilitation throughout the breast cancer care continuum. Objective This study aimed to develop a comprehensive mobile app and to describe an algorithm that adjusts personalized content to facilitate self-management throughout the breast cancer care continuum. Methods The development process of the modular mHealth app included the following 4 steps: (1) organizing expert teams, (2) defining evidence-based fundamental content and modules, (3) classifying user information for algorithms to personalize the content, and (4) creating the app platform and connectivity to digital health care devices. Results We developed a modular mHealth app service, which took 18 months, including a review of related literature and guidelines and the development of the app and connectivity to digital health care devices. A total of 11 functionalities were defined in the app with weekly analysis. The user information classification was formulated for personalized rehabilitation according to 5 key criteria: general user information, breast operation type, lymph node surgery type, chemotherapy and hormonal therapy use, and change in treatment after surgery. The main modules for personalized content included a self-monitoring screen, personalized health information, personalized exercise, and diet management. Conclusions The strength of this study was the development of a comprehensive mHealth app and algorithms to adjust content based on user medical information for personalized rehabilitation during the breast cancer care continuum.

Designing remote patient and family centred interventions: an exploratory approach

“…Designers can play an important role in developing and adjusting these modules to meet the specific preferences and requirements of individual families. In itself, the concept of service modularity is not novel in digital health design: examples range from modular web platforms for tailored hypertension management (Siopis et al, 2022), to a modular mHealth app service for breast cancer (Lim et al, 2021), to a modular ICT-based framework for diabetes self-management (Lamprinos et al, 2016). Our proposed approach builds on this existing knowledge by showing how it can be applied in designing family-centred interventions for home-based CVD health management.…”

Assessing the Views and Needs of People at High Risk of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus for the Development of Mobile Health Apps: Descriptive Qualitative Study

“…A research report pointed out that women were dissatisfied with the limited response of apps, and hoped that the apps could specifically analyze the characteristics of users and provide different solutions [ 38 ]. The biggest difference between personalized apps and other apps is that personalized apps can provide personalized services for pregnant women in different stages of pregnancy [ 39 ]. Studies have shown that personalized features in apps could improve users’ compliance with lifestyle interventions, which is one of the most common intervention strategies in mHealth apps [ 40 ].…”

Feasibility and usability of a personalized mHealth app for self-management in the first year following breast cancer surgery

“…The detailed descriptions of app development and service flow have been indicated in a prior work. 25…”

“…Therefore, our team developed a comprehensive mobile app (called Breast Cancer by Second Doctor ). 25 To the best of our knowledge, there is no comprehensive mobile app developed specifically for providing personalized content based on the classification of user information for self-management after surgery. The goal was to support integrated and long-term self-management immediately after surgery and throughout the treatment process.…”