The main innovations from BD4QoL are:
• Continuous and unobtrusive post-treatment monitoring of QoL for HNC survivors, detection of related risks and enactment of timely self-empowerment intervention based on AI-powered chatbot
• Improvement in the personalization of QoL monitoring, by leveraging multiple conventional (e.g. electronic health records) and unconventional (e.g. mHealth) data sources, categorized in a holistic ontology
• Investigation of behavioral markers that allow the extraction of relevant features, longitudinally and unobtrusively, that could prospectively substitute more obtrusive methods like conventional questionnaires
• Inclusion of affective features, as detectable through AI-based technologies (e.g. IBM Watson)
• Investigation of AI and ML models that can predict, rather than just measure, QoL trajectories
• Improve physicians' support at the point of care, by integrating the above-mentioned innovations within consistent workflow apps, for improved decision making
These innovations will lead to the following impacts:
• Increase the latitude of data relating to the QoL trajectories of HCN survivors, and describe them in an appropriate comprehensive ontology that will facilitate their use, reuse and sharing, along FAIR data management principles
• Increase scientific knowledge on how behavioral and affective features, when added to conventional clinical data impact modelling of QoL trajectories, assess their predictive potential and ability to elucidate causative mechanisms
• Better HNC survivors’ follow up workflows, supported by chatbot self-empowerment support, alerting, data visualization and patient-physician communication
• Conduction of HTA, usability and acceptability studies to provide evidence-based support for better decision and policy making regarding cancer survivorship management
• Better QoL for HNC survivors, from the combination and application of the above innovations and impacts
• Increased knowledge on QoL determinants and socioeconomic impacts for different HNC survivors’ subgroups.
• Assessment of m-health technologies potential for health and QoL monitoring. of the limitations of current regulatory frameworks and of the technical barriers imposed by mobile devices providers.
The continuity and unobtrusiveness of HNC survivors monitoring, envisaged by the BD4QoL platform, assumes an increased interest in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic which entailed a reduction of the face-to-face follow up visits and an additional requirement for remote monitoring of survivors.
