A methodology for the design and development of gamified mobile apps for monitoring cancer survivors

Abstract

An increasing number of cancer patients is treated and recover each year, and consequently there are survivors that require specialized and coordinated follow-up. The physical, social, working, psychological and emotional aspects of these survivors have to be characterized, investigated and treated by multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary teams. Nowadays, oncology community is focused on tracking records of interest in Patient-Reported Outcome (PROs) for patients of different cancer types. In the last years, several articles have proven that PROs are an effective method to improve the management of patient symptoms and, subsequently, clinical care. In this scenario, patient engagement is one of the most relevant aspects for PROs success. In this sense, one of the most promising strategies for increasing engagement is gamification, that is, the introduction of game elements in systems that are not games. Therefore, in this work we introduce a methodology for developing gamification apps for cancer survivors that aims at increasing engagement when collecting PROs data.