eHealth Platforms Facilitate Prostate Cancer Shared Care: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: Prostate cancer survivorship care is essential for the early identification of cancer recurrence and progression and the monitoring of adverse effects. Prostate cancer survivorship programs have enabled care to be shared between specialists using digital healthcare platforms. We systematically reviewed the literature to examine if prostate cancer survivorship care had been successfully digitalised. Methods: English language articles were searched on PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Libraries. The search terms included combinations of “eHealth”, “digital health”, “prostate cancer”, “shared care”, and related keywords (studies published between [1 January 1946 and 20 March 2023]). Results: Our search strategy yielded 1722 publications, of which 17 studies were included in our final review. Diverse eHealth interventions (web platforms, apps, patient portals) for digital prostate cancer shared care enabled communication, symptom management, and holistic assessment, with potential for reducing anxiety, enhancing outcomes, and increasing engagement. The studies (9 months to 5 years duration) involved participants across different care phases (16 to 3521 participants). We identified ten eHealth platforms, which provided successful symptom tracking, needs assessment, and communications. The platform-based interventions improved some aspects of communication, symptom management, and care delivery. The ongoing clinical need for a robust digital platform that caters to all domains of shared care was identified. Conclusions: eHealth will certainly play a central role in digital prostate cancer shared care, providing better health outcomes and care delivery. Future larger studies in this field should address the implementation barriers, including cost-effectiveness and primary care remuneration. It is also crucial to refine application useability and workflow, focusing on standardization and patient-centred approaches.