Oncology is Only Just Beginning to Embrace Digital Innovation, Suggests New Findings

Oncology is renowned for leading innovation in research and in care. However, it is only just beginning to embrace digital innovation. 

Remote patient monitoring, decentralized approaches to care and research, “hospital at home,” and machine learning techniques have yet to be broadly deployed to improve cancer care, suggest findings published by Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) and Moffitt Cancer Center.

Titled ‘Advancing Digital Health Innovation in Oncology: Priorities for High-Value Digital Transformation in Cancer Care’, the article discusses why digital innovation is lagging in oncology relative to other therapeutic areas. Over 40 multi stakeholder experts cited agree that this lag is most likely attributed to ‘poor articulation of the challenges in cancer care and research best suited to digital solutions, lack of incentives and support, and missing standardized infrastructure to implement digital innovations.’ 

Highlighting the obstacles in the digitization of cancer care, the findings state that ‘effective cancer treatment, management, and research require the facile exchange of large amounts of data and information. But standardization of oncology data is impeded by how we measure disease progression, with the most important information often buried in images, narratives, and other unstructured data.’  

Lack of access to essential cancer care due to challenges in accessing and aggregating all of their necessary medical records and health information often affects the treatment outcomes of patients.

For digital solutions to bridge the gap between the reality of cancer care today and in the future, the solutions must focus on the full spectrum of each person’s cancer journey, from ‘reducing the risk of diagnosis to whole-person support of every individual with a cancer diagnosis.’

The article further suggests that digital solutions must be evaluated in a ‘longitudinal manner, recognizing that their value may change with disease progression and a lifetime of different needs’, including the needs of the care partners.

Digitized decision-support systems can improve outcomes, reduce costs, democratize optimized decision-making, and improve outcomes, efficiency, and provider satisfaction while minimizing the risk of harm. The use of digital technologies also offers an opportunity to increase the enrollment of patients with cancer into clinical trials.

The findings are published in JMIR Publications and can be read here. 

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