CHEMOINFO - Patient individualized chemotherapy information

Chemotherapy can be extremely complex. In order to understand their treatment and how to handle side-effects, patients must read many separate documents. They must also take into account the more specific recommendations of their treatment team, as some of the information in the pamphlets they receive may not apply to them. All of this can make analready trying ordeal more confusing and stressful.

Meanwhile, medical literature shows documented benefits to personalized care. Patient satisfaction is higher, since they feel more involved in their treatment plan. Personalization can also improve outcomes: if patients have a better understanding of their treatment, they will know what to avoid and when to seek additional care.

Given all of this, the goal of my project was to improve the way in which information is provided to patients in Opal, a mobile app developed by researchers and students at the MUHC. More specifically, I created a framework to dynamically compose personalized information documents about chemotherapy for breast cancer patients. This was done as part of my Honours research project in Computer Science.