Introduction of a Digital Care Companion to Facilitate Patient Reported Outcome Measures and Breast Care Nurse-Led Survivorship

Purpose As part of the Breast Cancer Survivorship program in the Royal Melbourne Hospital, a newly developed electronic platform, Care Companion, is designed to facilitate remote monitoring of breast cancer patients within the patient portal; this platform is linked to the Epic Electronic Medical Record (EMR). This study aims to investigate the feasibility of this transition and identify areas of unmet needs from post surgical patients through electronic Patient Reported Outcome Measures (ePROMS). Patients and Methods The responses from the three self-reported questionnaires completed by breast cancer patients were collected between September 2022 and March 2024. Results Of the 133 patients invited to the Nurse-led Clinic, 47 (35.3%) completed pre-clinic PROMs and attended. The completion rate was 98%, 52% and 58% respectively. From a smaller sample of 9 survey respondents, 100% reported being satisfied with the program, would recommend the Care Companion breast survivorship program. 89% of respondents felt able to complete the tasks, felt actively involved, found care companion easy to use and were comfortable using devices. Conclusion This pilot study has demonstrated that Care Companion is a user-friendly electronic tool for a long-established paper-based service. This study aims to enhance our comprehension of post-surgical care by examining the unmet needs and distress areas on referrals from survivorship clinics, as well as the influence of survivorship clinics on interactions with the hospital beyond scheduled visits.