Involving health professionals in the development of an advanced symptom management system for young people: the ASyMS-YG study

ASyMS© is an advanced symptom management system utilising mobile phone technology for patients to report cancer chemotherapy-related symptoms. The aim of this paper is to present health professionals involvement in the development of ASyMS© for use with young people (YG) and evaluate their perceptions of the system. Stage 1 Health professionals reviewed the symptoms chosen by young people to be included on the personal digital assistant questionnaire to confirm they would have universal relevance. These included: mouth sores, nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting and weight loss. Stage 2 Health professionals completed a questionnaire prior to the study commencing, which suggested they felt ASyMS©-YG would give young people control and facilitate timely interventions when symptoms occur. Post-study perceptions were sought through semi-structured interviews and consultation sessions with 23 health professionals. These showed two over-arching themes: young people's symptoms and perceptions of ASyMS©-YG; and six sub-themes: increased control for young people; enhances communication between young people and health professionals; and helps with professional early intervention; increased support for young people; improve knowledge and understanding; technology appealing to young people. Conclusions This early development work indicates that ASyMS©-YG is acceptable to health professionals and their perceptions of the system were overall very positive. Health professionals will continue to be involved in the study through developing self-care guidelines and alert system, which will be tested in an exploratory trial (stage 3) and randomised controlled trial (stage 4) in the future.