Patient Engagement in Cancer Survivorship Care through mHealth: A Consumer-centered Review of Existing Mobile Applications.

With improvements in early detection and treatment, the number of cancer survivors has been on the rise. Studies suggest that cancer survivors do not often receive proper follow-up care despite existing guidelines. Patient engagement is key to healthy survivorship, and mHealth provides a viable platform to empower survivors with just- in-time personalized support. However, our understanding of existing mHealth solutions in cancer survivorship is limited. In this paper, we use Patient Engagement Framework to investigate existing apps to bridge this knowledge gap. App features are mapped to the framework components to determine the level of engagement facilitated. Ability to record treatment summaries has been found in five out of seven apps examined. While collaborative care and social engagement are found minimally, the majority of features (95%) are limited to information and way finding, e-tools, and interactive forms. Limitations of the existing apps and possible improvements to the framework are discussed.