A Novel Information Support App for Patients with Colorectal Cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Developing and Testing an Avatar-Based Health Information Support App for Patients With Colorectal Cancer Receiving Chemotherapy for the First Time; A Mixed Methods Study
IRAS ID
240263
Contact name
Stephen Chapman
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Research Governance Keele University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Not applicable, Not applicable
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 4 months, 12 days
Research summary
The provision of information is widely recognised as an important way of providing support to patients diagnosed with cancer. Often, patients with a recent diagnosis of cancer are not always able to address their information needs and retain the various counselling points provided to them during consultations. Several interventions (e.g. additional consultations, computerised programs, telephone follow ups, personalised leaflets etc.) have been used and it was suggested that written information appealed mostly to patients with cancer, as they provided a point of reference that could be revisited when required. However, implementing these interventions in standard care would be impractical, as they can be resource and time-consuming.
In an attempt to help deal with this matter, our team is going to develop a novel type of information support app for patients with cancer. This app will provide patients with condition and treatment-related information. Unlike previous health apps, our intervention will incorporate avatar technology. This means that instead of using plain text to answer patients’ questions, we will be using a virtual clinician (i.e. an avatar version of a real healthcare professional) to facilitate the provision of information support and create a more user-friendly platform.
This application concerns both our pilot and main study. The pilot investigation will help us validate the design of the main project. Both of these studies are planned to take place at the Churchill Hospital (OUH). The pilot study will run over a period of two months and will be involving a maximum of four patients with colorectal cancer who will be receiving chemotherapy with oxaliplatin and capecitabine (also known as XELOX) for the first time. The main study will run at the same site over a period of 12 months and will involve a maximum of 40 patients with colorectal cancer (same as above).
REC name
London - Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/0674
Date of REC Opinion
20 Apr 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion