Remote Patient Monitoring in Oncology: Beyond the Digital Divide

Challenging Paradigms in Digital Healthcare Access

While the adoption of RPM tools is accelerating, the exclusion of patients less familiar with digital technologies has remained a major concern for clinicians. This new multicentre study (analysing over 4,700 patients) challenges this assumption by comparing healthcare professionals' perceptions with real-world Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs).

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Key Findings: Clinical Effectiveness in Real-World Practice

The study’s data reveal that digital illiteracy should no longer be considered a barrier to RPM programs:

• High adherence: Patients facing digital exclusion show an adherence rate of 81.3%, nearly equivalent to tech-savvy profiles.
• Clinical impact: An identical reduction in symptom severity (PRO-CTCAE score) was observed in both groups. Furthermore, patients with the lowest digital literacy initially presented with more severe symptoms, making them the primary beneficiaries of the service.
• Perception bias: The study highlights a bias among healthcare professionals, who tend to underestimate the ability of older or more vulnerable patients to engage in RPM tools.
• Scalability: These results, gathered from 33 centers across France and Belgium, support the feasibility of a large-scale rollout of Remote Patient Monitoring.

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Towards Evidence-Based Digital Oncology

These findings support the relevance of integrating Remote Patient Monitoring into standard care pathways. They suggest that RPM, far from widening inequalities, can serve as a lever for healthcare equity to improve the management of the most vulnerable patients, regardless of their initial technological proficiency.

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