Patient-reported outcome (PROs) can be used at the individual patient level for a number of different purposes, including for screening for and assessing concerns and unmet needs, symptom monitoring, and shared decision making. There is now a high-quality evidence base supporting the use of electronic PROs (ePROs) for symptom monitoring between clinic visits in people receiving systemic treatment for cancer, including improvements in symptom control, quality of life, patient satisfaction and self-efficacy and overall survival, as well as reductions in emergency department presentations and hospitalisations. ePRO symptom monitoring is now considered a key component of quality cancer care and is recommended by major oncology professional groups, such as the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and reimbursed as a ‘digital therapeutic’ in France and the United States.
However, implementing ePRO symptom monitoring in routine clinical care is not straightforward. Successful implementation requires early engagement with key stakeholders, close attention to selecting clinically relevant PROs and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), careful selection of software (including electronic medical record integration), integration into existing workflows, and managing cultural change.
We will discuss examples of successful implementation of ePROs for symptom monitoring from around the world, highlight key lessons in the design and implementation of ePRO symptom monitoring, and discuss how we can apply these learnings from overseas to drive the uptake of ePRO symptom monitoring in the Australian healthcare context.