Cabrini Health and The Alfred, two of the largest healthcare providers in the state of Victoria, have deployed a patient-reported outcome measures platform by digital health company The Clinician to automate their collection and analysis of health data from colorectal cancer patients.

The rollout of the ZEDOC platform in these two healthcare centres is backed by a grant under the Collie Foundation and the non-profit initiative Let’s Beat Bowel Cancer.

WHAT IT'S FOR

The said program allows colorectal neoplasia patients undergoing surgeries to report their own health-related outcomes via the cloud-based platform on their mobile devices or computers. Their PROMs data are then sent to a centralised portal that is accessible to care teams for their monitoring of patients' progress and understanding of their health profiles. 

According to The Clinician, the ZEDOC installations adhere to the colorectal cancer standards outlined by the International Consortium of Health Outcomes Measurement, which incorporates health domains that matter most to patients.

WHY IT MATTERS

The Clinician said that streamlining the collection and analysis of patients' PROMs will contribute to patient care by enhancing patient-clinician communication, improving clinical decision making and symptom monitoring, and hence, raising the chances of colorectal cancer patients' survival. 

Aside from reducing the administrative burden associated with managing PROMs data, the ZEDOC system can also be leveraged to understand the value of healthcare services being delivered to cancer patients.  

THE LARGER TREND

In other states, the Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health in South Australia is seeking a state-wide patient-reported measures solution that includes both PROMs and patient-reported experience measures. The system is aimed at empowering patients to record the impact of their own health conditions on their lives.

ON THE RECORD

"This Victorian-first program will give colorectal cancer patients a voice and this will allow us to improve their health-related outcomes through improved symptom monitoring and enhanced patient-clinician communication," said Professor Paul McMurrick, a colorectal surgeon at Cabrini Health.