New app uses AI to guide and support cancer patients

Artificial Intelligence helps guide and badist approximately 50 bad cancer patients in rural Georgia through a new mobile application that provides personalized recommendations on all topics, from side effects to insurance.

The application, called MyPath, adapts to each step of the journey of a cancer patient. Thus, the information available on the application, which runs on a tablet, change regularly depending on the progress of each patient. Are you scheduled for surgery? MyPath will tell you what you need to know the day before.

"Patients told us," It just seemed to magically know what I needed, "said Elizabeth Mynatt, senior research scientist and professor emeritus of Georgia Tech's School of Interactive Computing.

Mynatt, who is also executive director of the Institute for People and Technology, believes MyPath is the first health care application that can personalize (through its AI application) holistic cancer care. In addition to integrating the medical data of a patient, the application also treats a variety of other relevant issues such as social and emotional needs.

She will present the work on February 15 at the 2019 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

National recognition

In January, MyPath was recognized by iSchools, a consortium of hundreds of institutions around the world (including Georgia Tech) dedicated to advancing the field of information. Maia Jacobs, who recently earned her doctorate from Georgia Tech for her work on MyPath, was named the winner of the iSchools 2019 PhD Thesis Award.

According to iSchools, "the price committee felt [that Jacobs’ work] was timely and important, and praised its impact on how patients manage their health. Jacobs, currently a Harvard Postdoctoral Fellow, is studying the possibility of extending MyPath to other diseases.

The work was also honored in 2016 when it was presented in a report to President Barack Obama by the President's Panel on Cancer. The report, Improving Cancer Outcomes with Connected Health, aimed to "help patients manage their health information and participate in their own care," according to a Georgia Tech article from the time.

The beginning

Six years ago, the Mynatt team began working with the Harbin Clinic in Rome, Georgia. "They have an outstanding holistic cancer treatment program in which they recognize that their patients, who live in a large rural area, face a variety of challenges to be successful in their cancer journey," said Mynatt.

But Harbin doctors and cancer navigators, people who help patients throughout their cancer, wanted a better way to keep in touch with patients on a regular basis. Browsers, in particular, found that they tended to interact a lot with patients during diagnosis, but less frequently over time. And that meant that although there were a lot of recommendations for, for example, reducing anxiety, they were not necessarily communicated.

Mynatt said, "We wondered how technology could amplify what these great people are doing."

How it works

MyPath begins with a mobile library of resources compiled from the American Cancer Society and other reputable organizations. Then, it is personalized with the diagnosis and the treatment plan of each patient, including the dates of the specific procedures. Patients also complete regular surveys that inform the system – and caregivers – of their changing needs and symptoms.

The result is a system that provides each patient with resources and suggestions specific to their personal situation. Because MyPath knows, for example, that you have stage 2 bad cancer and are having a lumpectomy on a specific date, click on the "Surgery Preparation" category to suggest relevant articles to prepare you for the surgery. 39; future. Have you reported nausea in the system's investigation? MyPath will draw your attention to the resources that can help fight the side effects. The system also provides quick access to contact information of specific caregivers.

Other applications and the Internet are not personalized. This means that you have to go through a lot of often technical information that is not relevant to your situation. However, "every day, MyPath puts the right resources at your fingertips to help you along your cancer journey," said Mynatt.

More than medical

Some of the most popular features of MyPath have nothing to do with cancer. Patients regularly check the "Emotional Support" and "Day by Day" buttons. "When we asked them how they were using the tablet for health care, many patients told us about playing Angry Birds, which they would download to distract them during chemotherapy sessions," Mynatt said.

MyPath is the second generation of the application. The patient reactions of his predecessor, My Journey Compbad, have led to changes, including personalization. The development continues. For example, the Mynatt team hopes to expand the application for it to be used by cancer survivors, who often face additional challenges, such as hormone replacement therapy. The team is also working on a version that each patient could download, which would make the application available to many more users.

Provided by
Georgia Institute of Technology