400 Section - Feasibility and Acceptability of Longitudinal Monitoring of Rehabilitation Needs in Head and Neck Surgical Oncology Practice

Objectives : Patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) undergo aggressive treatment that results in high symptom burden and poor quality of life, requiring longitudinal monitoring to improve patient outcomes. The project aim was to test the feasibility and acceptability of implementing a digital patient-reported symptom (PRO) measure for longitudinal monitoring of patients with rehabilitation needs in an HNC surgical oncology practice.

Design: After obtaining informed consent, the team emailed patients a secure link to PROs in REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) before their next HNC surgical oncology visit. After patients completed the surveys, the team automated survey responses to clinicians. The digital PROs consisted of a valid patient-reported measure for HNC, the NYU Electronic Patient Visit Assessment (ePVA), a patient-reported measure of 21 symptoms common to HNC, and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30, a valid health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measure. The hypotheses were between 25% and 50% of enrolled patients would complete the PROs and 70% of patients with 2 appointments within 6 months after enrollment would complete the PROs at both appointments..

Results: The participants' mean age was 63, primarily male (73%), white (82%), and non-Hispanic (55%). Predominant rehabilitation needs were edema (58%), dysphagia (58%), pain (58%), and limitation in daily activities (48%). Among enrolled patients, 72% (33 of 46) completed the digital PROs at their next appointment. Among patients with 2 appointments within 6 months of consent, 71% (17 of 24) completed the PROs at each visit. The total number of patient-reported symptoms was significantly and negatively correlated with patient-reported HRQoL (r = -0.6, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Study findings indicate feasibility and acceptability of implementing digital PROs for longitudinal monitoring of rehabilitation needs in an HNC surgical oncology practice.