Cancer care often involves aggressive treatments like chemotherapy, exposing patients to serious risks, such as febrile neutropenia, and other chemotherapy-related complications. Current care models depend heavily on patients reporting issues, often leading to delays in necessary intervention. This emphasizes the need for a more proactive and sophisticated approach to patient monitoring and care management. Modern wearable devices provide continuous objective data with the goal of enhancing cancer care. Patient-generated health data (PGHD), or health-related data gathered from patients to help address a health concern, are used increasingly in oncology to make regulatory decisions and evaluate quality of care. PGHD include self-reported health and treatment histories and patient-reported outcomes (PROs). A recent prospective study assessed the feasibility of monitoring of physical activity using a commercial wearable device and collecting electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePROs) during radiotherapy (RT) for head and neck cancer (HNC). In this study 29 patients were enrolled; step data were recorded on 70% of the days during patients' RT courses, and there were only 11 patients (38%) for whom step data were collected on at least 80% of days during RT. feasibility end point was not achieved suggesting that rigorous workflows are required to achieve continuous activity monitoring during RT. However, the findings are consistent with previous reports indicating that wearable device data can help identify patients who are at risk for unplanned hospitalization. In another study, patients with early stage breast cancer were enrolled prior to starting chemotherapy. Patients received a Fitbit Charge HR and were instructed to wear it and sync at least weekly throughout chemotherapy and up to six months post therapy. Patients completed baseline surveys, and treatment information was collected from their medical records. Fitbit data was downloaded from the Fitabase data management platform. To assess utility, they evaluated how many days patients wore their Fitbit for at least 10 hours. Fitbit use during breast cancer chemotherapy was poor in the absence of prompts to encourage wear. Interventions including phone calls, texts, to maintain adherence are likely necessary to increase wear in active treatment settings. Cancer patients receiving chemotherapy who are at high risk of febrile neutropenia, infections or complications in general, would benefit from a new remote monitoring model that not only monitors data but records, trends and delivers actionable clinical insights regarding the patient status with a goal of intervening early and evaluate potential toxicities and complications from treatment. The goal would be to assess compliance in addition to decrease frequency of emergency department visits as well as unplanned hospital admissions.
Quantify Remote Care's Enhanced Care Management (ECM) program aims to proactively manage patients undergoing complex treatment regimens, particularly those at high risk for complications. Our ECM program harnesses cutting-edge technology to enable continuous, real-time monitoring of a variety of physiological metrics, allowing for immediate intervention at the earliest signs of patient distress. One such technology is the Alio Smart Patch, originally developed for monitoring patients with end-stage renal disease undergoing hemodialysis. The wearable biosensor offers multi-sensor capabilities, capturing physiologic, hematologic, and electrolyte data in real time. This data is then channeled into a provider-based portal for seamless integration into clinical decision-making processes.
This pilot study aims to evaluate the efficacy of Quantify Remote Care's ECM program in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, who are notably at higher risk of complications from treatment. Participants will be equipped with the Alio Smart Patch, giving healthcare providers 24-hour access to essential medical data, thereby enabling timely interventions to prevent severe complications.
