A virtual patient navigation application for lung cancer assessment patients

Abstract

A virtual patient navigator is a web/mobile application that helps patients with lung cancer diagnosis reduce their anxiety and uncertainties. In particular, lung cancer patients easily become overwhelmed when having to manage information overload, many appointments with different instructions and locations, and recommendations on how to improve their lifestyle. Existing solutions such as paper-based patient navigators provide much reliable information but are limited in terms of dynamic updates and do not provide opportunities for interactions between care providers and patients. In this paper, we propose a new web-based, mobile, and user-friendly virtual patient navigator application named Care Ami, which incorporates the information found in an existing paper-based navigator along with new features such as remote updates to personal care paths and calendars, personalized navigation guidance, sharing of symptom/medication information, and peer group support. The architecture and main features of this application are presented. Based on the identified requirements, Care Ami compares favorably against related work and solutions.