Analytical exploratory tool for healthcare professionals to monitor cancer patients' progress

[EN] Cancer is a primary public concern in the European continent. Due to the large case numbers and survival rates, a significant population is living with cancer needs. Consequently, health professionals must deal with complex treatment decision-making processes. In this context, much data is collected during cancer care delivery. Once collected, these data are complex for health professionals to access to support clinical decision-making and performance review. There is a need for innovative tools that make clinical data more accessible to support cancer health professionals in these activities. One approach for providing health professionals with access to clinical data is to create the infrastructure and interface for a clinical tool to make data accessible in a relevant manner. In this sense, results should be understandable and valuable for cancer experts to evaluate and optimize cancer processes. This work aims to collect and report the process of developing an exploratory analytical Interactive Process Mining tool with clinical relevance for healthcare professionals for monitoring cancer patients¿ care processes in the context of the LifeChamps project. Following a co-creation and interactive approach thanks to the Interactive Process Mining paradigm, the tool presents patients¿ progress over time for different clinical models and a graphical and navigable Process Indicator in the context of prostate cancer patients.This work was partially funded by the European Union¿s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No 875329.Valero Ramon, Z.; Fernández Llatas, C.; Collantes, G.; Valdivieso, F.; Billis, A.; Bamidis, P.; Traver Salcedo, V. (2023). Analytical exploratory tool for healthcare professionals to monitor cancer patients' progress. Frontiers in Oncology. 12:1-19. https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2022.10434111191

A smart digital health platform to enable monitoring of quality of life and frailty in older patients with cancer: a mixed-methods, feasibility study protocol

Objectives: LifeChamps is an EU Horizon 2020 project that aims to create a digital platform to enable monitoring of health-related quality of life and frailty in patients with cancer over the age of 65. Our primary objective is to assess feasibility, usability, acceptability, fidelity, adherence, and safety parameters when implementing LifeChamps in routine cancer care. Secondary objectives involve evaluating preliminary signals of efficacy and cost-effectiveness indicators. Data Sources: This will be a mixed-methods exploratory project, involving four study sites in Greece, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The quantitative component of LifeChamps (single-group, pre-post feasibility study) will integrate digital technologies, home-based motion sensors, self-administered questionnaires, and the electronic health record to (1) enable multimodal, real-world data collection, (2) provide patients with a coaching mobile app interface, and (3) equip healthcare professionals with an interactive, patient-monitoring dashboard. The qualitative component will determine end-user usability and acceptability via end-of-study surveys and interviews. Conclusion: The first patient was enrolled in the study in January 2023. Recruitment will be ongoing until the project finishes before the end of 2023. Implications for Nursing Practice: LifeChamps provides a comprehensive digital health platform to enable continuous monitoring of frailty indicators and health-related quality of life determinants in geriatric cancer care. Real-world data collection will generate “big data” sets to enable development of predictive algorithms to enable patient risk classification, identification of patients in need for a comprehensive geriatric assessment, and subsequently personalized care

Hidden Bleed Ultrasound Phantom

Every year, GW hospital treats 300 gunshot wound victims and, per protocol, doctors and nurses will calculate a patient’s ankle brachial index (ABI) to determine whether or not the injuries sustained by the lower extremities require surgery to repair any internal bleeding. If a patient scores a 0.9 or above on the ABI, they are further examined for damage to the vasculature of their legs. However, patients that score closely to a 0.9 are prematurely sent home from hospitals because their ABI score is within the normal range but post injury internal bleeding can be extremely slow and not affect the ABI value. This is dangerous since their internal bleedings injuries can worsen and have to seek treatment again. Our group proposes using ultrasound as a diagnostic tool to detect internal pseudoaneurysms if a patient scores close to a 0.9 on the ABI. To test the effectiveness of ultrasound in pseudoaneurysm detection, we are developing a tissue ultrasound phantom of the leg with a femoral artery to test ultrasound in this application. We are going to create and develop multiple leg tissue phantoms with femoral arteries, which consist of the same acoustic properties of real tissue and blood. Then, we will mimic different potential gunshot induced pseudoaneurysm scenarios on these phantoms to observe their effects. The phantom will be attached to a peristaltic pump to facilitate blood flow and a pressure sensor will collect data which will allow the maximum and minimum pressures within the artery, ABI and BPM to be calculated via a microcontroller. After ultrasound imaging is performed on the phantom, the image is analyzed using ImageJ and the pseudoaneurysm can be detected and measured. When the femoral artery is punctured, we expect to see the blood mimicking fluid slowly ooze from the puncture site and pool around the artery within the gel. The gel and blood mimicking fluid will contain a similar acoustic attenuation to real blood and soft tissue. This will prove that the gels are biomimetic and can be used in future research to study sonography and produce an algorithm that self detects trauma induced pseudoaneurysms while minimizing the user variability associated with ultrasound in clinical settings