Empowerment of Cancer Survivors Through Information Technology: An Integrative Review

Abstract

BackgroundPatient empowerment may be an effective approach to strengthen the role of cancer survivors and to reduce the burden on health care. However, it is not well conceptualized, notably in oncology. Furthermore, it is unclear to what extent information technology (IT) services can contribute to empowerment of cancer survivors.ObjectiveWe aim to define the conceptual components of patient empowerment of chronic disease patients, especially cancer survivors, and to explore the contribution of existing and new IT services to promote empowerment.MethodsElectronic databases were searched to identify theoretical and empirical articles regarding empowerment. We extracted and synthesized conceptual components of patient empowerment (ie, attributes, antecedents, and consequences) according to the integrated review methodology. We identified recent IT services for cancer survivors by examining systematic reviews and a proposed inventory of new services, and we related their features and effects to the identified components of empowerment.ResultsBased on 26 articles, we identified five main attributes of patient empowerment: (1) being autonomous and respected, (2) having knowledge, (3) having psychosocial and behavioral skills, (4) perceiving support from community, family, and friends, and (5) perceiving oneself to be useful. The latter two were specific for the cancer setting. Systematic reviews of IT services and our additional inventory helped us identify five main categories: (1) educational services, including electronic survivorship care plan services, (2) patient-to-patient services, (3) electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) services, (4) multicomponent services, and (5) portal services. Potential impact on empowerment included knowledge enhancement and, to a lesser extent, enhancing autonomy and skills. Newly developed services offer promising and exciting opportunities to empower cancer survivors, for instance, by providing tailored advice for supportive or follow-up care based on patients' input.ConclusionsWe identified five main components of empowerment and showed that IT services may especially contribute to empowerment by providing knowledge. The components of empowerment could be used to develop IT services for cancer survivors. It is important to take into account patients’ needs, follow up on these needs, and create a service that is attractive and easy to use.

Empowerment in adolescents and young adults with cancer: Relationship with health‐related quality of life

“…Empowerment is a factor that may be associated with HRQOL and has become a topical issue in cancer survivorship over recent years 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. With its roots in community psychology, empowerment originally was defined as “the mechanism by which people, organizations, and communities gain mastery over their lives.”11 The topical nature and the extensive (mis)use of empowerment in health care has led to a lack of clarity in regard to its definition and measurement 12.…”

A Mobile Cancer Follow-up Care Plan for Patient Empowerment

“…They claimed that all patients should be equipped with a comprehensive treatment summary and follow-up care plan [12]. Further, Groen et al [13] found out that among others educational services including care plan services brought to the patient through IT services may contribute to patient empowerment. They conclude that it is important to consider the needs of a patient when developing IT services, and to create services that are attractive and easy to use.…”

“…In future work, an automatic data upload from medical devices or gadgets should be implemented to simplify the usage of this feature and to ensure the long-time use of the app as a follow-up care tool. In addition to the information page, additional components for empowerment could be integrated such as patient-to-patient services [2] or patient portal services [13]. For example, the patient could be enabled to record the health status on a weekly or even daily basis and the app could integrate values from smart devices.…”

“…It would be interesting, to assess the effects of using IT to improve follow-up cancer care. At least, Groen et al [13] found out that IT can be useful in this process. Additional comprehensive studies are still required to verify this.…”

A Systematic Review of Literature Reporting on Studies Analysing Technologies for Ageing in Place to Support Community-Dwelling Older Adults

“…• Cancer -The empowerment of patients with cancer can contribute to them being autonomous and respected, having knowledge, having psychosocial and behavioural skills, receiving support from community, family, and friends (Groen et al, 2015). In this respect, eHealth applications can support knowledge transmission, including electronic survivorship care plans, and patient-to-patient or patient-tocaregiver communication (Groen et al, 2015).…”