Ambulatory Cancer Care Electronic Symptom Self-Reporting for Surgical Patients

In this cohort, the electronic system will provide advanced informatics support for push notifications to the care team based on the severity of the symptoms reported. This platform promotes early detection and intervention. The care team is alerted when patients experience symptoms out of the expected range or if symptoms are worsening. Nurses receive secure message notifications and will contact the patient by phone depending on symptom severity. If a patient responds with a moderate-severe answer, the office team gets an alert and calls the patient during business hours.

In this cohort, the electronic system will provide tailored normative data visualizations that offer context and education to patients regarding expected symptom severity. The information provided to patients in the Enhanced Feedback group will be procedure specific and based on continuously updated PRO-CTCAE data from previous patients. Patients are thus able to see their own recovery trajectory relative to that of patients who have undergone the same procedure. Care is patient activated in that patients will use the information about expected symptoms to decide whether they should call the care team (e.g., if they are experiencing symptoms that are more severe or more prolonged than expected). If a patient reports severe symptoms, they are instructed to immediately contact their physician's office or seek medical attention.