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Exploring Cancer Patients’ Perceptions of Accessing and Experience with Using the Educational Material in the Opal Patient Portal

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Abstract

Purpose

Opal is a new patient-centered mobile application that gives cancer patients access to their real time medical data in conjunction with disease- and treatment-specific patient education material. Few studies have focused on patients’ experiences with such mobile applications. This study’s objectives were to (1) explore cancer patients’ perceptions of accessing the educational materials through Opal and (2) explore their experiences using these educational materials.

Methods

A qualitative descriptive design was used. Patients were invited to participate in the study via Opal itself. Semi-structured individual interviews were done in person or over the phone, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

Results

Nine women were interviewed. Three themes were identified as participants spoke about their perceptions of and experiences with Opal. First, Opal makes me feel like I have more control, conveying how learning more about their diagnosis and treatments allowed patients to advocate for themselves and plan their care. Second, Opal tends to reassure me, illustrating that having access to information was reassuring. Lastly, Opal is just starting to have information which could help meet my needs, reflecting patients’ belief Opal is on the right track but could provide more of their medical record, treating team contact information and education material.

Conclusion

Patients can feel more empowered when using patient-centered mobile applications, and mobile applications have potential for improving collaboration with healthcare professionals and care coordination. Healthcare professionals, including oncologists and nurses, should support patients’ use of mobile applications and integrate them in their patient interactions.

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Data availability

In accordance with the McGill University Health Centre Research Ethics Board, interview data will not be available, as this is a qualitative study and participant confidentiality needs to be maintained.

Code availability

Not applicable.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Opal design and development team, especially Dr. Tarek Hijal who was greatly involved in the creation of the Opal application, as well as Briana Cabral and Yick Kuan Mo for supporting and working with us during the recruitment phase of the study. We would also like to acknowledge Luc Galarneau for his editorial comments on our article. Lastly, we would like to thank the Cedars Cancer Foundation for providing patients with parking vouchers, allowing them to take part in in-person interviews.

Funding

Participant compensation (gift cards) and interview transcription was supported by funds held by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre for Andréa Maria Laizner, RN, PhD. The Montreal General Hospital Foundation has contributed funds for partial salary support for Dr. Laizner. Sylvie Lambert, RN, PhD is funded by a CIHR Canada Research Chair.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ingram School of Nursing, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada

    Katherine Mohsen, Sylvie D. Lambert & Andréa M. Laizner

  2. Medical Physics Unit - Gerald Bronfman, Department of Oncology, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada

    John Kildea

  3. Cancer Research Program, Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montréal, Québec, Canada

    John Kildea & Andréa M. Laizner

  4. St. Mary’s Research Centre, Montréal, Québec, Canada

    Sylvie D. Lambert

  5. Nursing Directorate, McGill University Health Centre, Montréal, Québec, Canada

    Andréa M. Laizner

Authors
  1. Katherine Mohsen
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  2. John Kildea
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  3. Sylvie D. Lambert
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  4. Andréa M. Laizner
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Katherine Mohsen, Andréa Maria Laizner, Sylvie Lambert and John Kildea. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Katherine Mohsen and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andréa M. Laizner.

Ethics declarations

Conflicts of interest/Competing interests

Dr. John Kildea declares he is a shareholder in a company, Opal Med Apps Inc., created to hold the intellectual property of Opal and possible future commercialization of the software.

Katherine Mohsen, Dr. Andréa Maria Laizner, and Dr. Sylvie Lambert have no conflict to declare.

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Mohsen, K., Kildea, J., Lambert, S.D. et al. Exploring Cancer Patients’ Perceptions of Accessing and Experience with Using the Educational Material in the Opal Patient Portal. Support Care Cancer 29, 4365–4374 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-020-05900-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-020-05900-4

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