Effectiveness of digital care platform CMyLife for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia: results of a patient-preference trial

• Published in: BMC health services research Vol. 23; no. 1; pp. 228 - 14
• Main Authors: Verweij, Lynn, Ector, Geneviève I. C. G., Smit, Yolba, van Vlijmen, Bas, van der Reijden, Bert A., Hermens, Rosella P. M. G., Blijlevens, Nicole M. A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BioMed Central 08.03.2023; BioMed Central Ltd; BMC
• Subjects: Analysis; Care and treatment; Chronic Disease; Chronic illnesses; Chronic myeloid leukemia; CML; COVID-19; Digital care platform; Disease; Empowerment; Guideline adherence; Health Administration; Health care access; Health Informatics; Health services; Hospitals; Humans; Information provision; Kinases; Leukemia; Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive - drug therapy; Life expectancy; Literacy; Medical care; Medication compliance; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Methods; Nursing Research; Online health care information services; Pandemics; Patient compliance; Patient empowerment; Patients; Personal health; Public Health; Quality management; Quality of Life; Questionnaires; Remission (Medicine); Self report; Technology application; Netherlands; Guideline adherence; CML; Molecular monitoring; Information provision; Digital care platform; Patient empowerment; Medication compliance; Quality of life
• ISSN: 1472-6963; 1472-6963
• DOI: 10.1186/s12913-023-09153-9

Background Two most important factors determining treatment success in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) are adequate medication compliance and molecular monitoring albeit still being suboptimal. The CMyLife platform is an eHealth innovation, co-created with and for CML patients, aiming to improve their care, leading to an increased quality of life and the opportunity of hospital-free care. Objective To explore the effectiveness of CMyLife in terms of information provision, patient empowerment, medication compliance, molecular monitoring, and quality of life. Methods Effectiveness of CMyLife was explored using a patient-preference trial. Upon completion of the baseline questionnaire, participants actively used (intervention group) or did not actively use (questionnaire group) the CMyLife platform for at least 6 months, after which they completed the post-intervention questionnaire. Scores between the intervention group and the questionnaire group were compared with regard to the within-subject change between baseline and post-measurement using Generalized Estimating Equation models. Results At baseline, 33 patients were enrolled in the questionnaire group and 75 in the intervention group. Online health information knowledge improved significantly when actively using CMyLife and patients felt more empowered. No significant improvements were found regarding medication compliance and molecular monitoring, which were already outstanding. Self-reported effectiveness showed that patients experienced that using CMyLife improved their medication compliance and helped them to oversee their molecular monitoring. Patients using CMyLife reported more symptoms but were better able to manage these. Conclusions Since hospital-free care has shown to be feasible in time of the COVID-19 pandemic, eHealth-based innovations such as CMyLife could be a solution to maintain the quality of care and make current oncological health care services more sustainable. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04595955 , 22/10/2020.