Informing, Reassuring, or Alarming? Balancing Patient Needs in the Development of a Postsurgical Symptom Reporting System in Cancer

After ambulatory surgeries, patients who recover at home have multiple questions about wound healing, symptoms and medication side effects, and recovery expectations. We conducted user testing and rapid application development of a newly developed symptom reporting system that supports home-based recovery by inviting patients to self-report symptoms in the days after surgery and then receive an immediate feedback report giving context for their reported symptoms. Findings showed that some participants primarily valued reassurance, whereas others prioritized receiving alerts about potential problems. Results also showed that most patients wanted feedback framed as comparing their progress to their expected progress, not to that of other patients. The final feedback report provided patients with actionable recommendations, small graphs showing their progress, and with short “gist” text interpretations. The system has been implemented, and recruitment is ongoing for a large clinical trial of its effectiveness for reducing adverse events and unnecessary emergency or urgent care visits