Telemonitoring Platform for Personalized Management of Oncology Patients
POR FESR CAMPANIA 2014/2020
Project co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund
Project Description
The project is based on scientific data considering that the increase in average life expectancy has led to greater complexity in health problems, particularly in terms of multiple chronic diseases. In fact, the number of cancer patients with coexisting conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and respiratory diseases is rising. These patients require a multidisciplinary diagnostic and therapeutic pathway that must be approached from a comprehensive, multiprofessional, and multidimensional perspective. Pharmacological treatment is also complicated by potential interactions between different diseases and medications used. While a multidisciplinary approach is somewhat successfully pursued at the clinical level during hospitalization, achieving this in the chronic care pathway for oncology patients outside the hospital setting is more challenging. General practitioners often find themselves in a peripheral role, unable or hindered by the lack of appropriate tools to communicate effectively with specialists involved in patient care. The burden of coordinating and integrating the various doctors involved in diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring often falls on the patients and their families, who lack professional tools for this task. An additional complication comes from territorial logistics. Many oncology patients in the Campania region cannot receive treatment within their own province, often migrating to centers of excellence and multidisciplinary oncology groups (GOM) active in Campania for each type of tumor pathology. These groups have recently been networked thanks to the newly established Campania Oncology Network. Many patients also choose to receive care in other Italian regions. Once back home, the monitoring process and communication between the general practitioner and the specialists responsible for the patient become very difficult.
Objectives
The specific objective of this project is to use IT and technological solutions aligned with the regional approach and the “National Oncology Plan” to facilitate, support, and make more efficient the complex multidisciplinary care process for oncology patients.
Results
A new socio-healthcare assistance module has been implemented within the Paginemediche technological platform, capable of actively and in real time connecting the patient (and their family) with the general practitioner and specialists involved in diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring. This process is realized through a module that, by using medical devices, not only allows patient data monitoring but also enables a multidisciplinary approach for more targeted care.
