Baptist Cancer Center was one of six centers in the U.S. chosen to be part of a research collaboration funded by The National Cancer Institute in association with the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot Initiative.
Dr. Raymond Osarogiagbon, a thoracic medical oncologist with Baptist Cancer Center, will serve as co-principal investigator and site leader for Baptist.
The collaboration –known as the SIMPRO Research Center –will develop, implement and evaluate an app called eSyM that will make it easier for cancer patients to report their symptoms to their physicians. Patients’ smart devices will enable a secure connection to their cancer care team via their electronic health record and facilitate symptom tracking following cancer surgery or chemotherapy. The study will test whether monitoring the symptoms patients experience and providing coaching on how to manage them can decrease the need for hospitalizations and emergency room visits.
Dr. Osarogiagbon, who also serves as co-director of Baptist’s Cancer Center’s thoracic oncology program, said, “Providing patients receiving chemotherapy with a convenient way to record their symptoms and clinicians with a convenient way to respond could provide major benefits, especially for hard-to-reach patients such as those we serve in rural Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas. These folks face barriers to receiving timely assistance, including long travel distances. If we can identify and address symptoms early, perhaps we can reduce the use of the emergency room and the hospital as well as suffering.”
After development and pilot testing, eSyM will be fully integrated into the electronic health record at each participating center, allowing for direct communication and real-time updates for clinicians who will have access to a dashboard of patients’ symptoms to prioritize outreach efforts and coaching.
The other collaborating sites are Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lifespan Cancer Institute, West Virginia University Cancer Institute and Maine Medical Center.
For more information, please visit www.eSyMCancerMoonshot.org.
