Revolutionizing Oncology in the Digital Age: Effects on Health Care Providers

Digital health care applications have revolutionized oncology over the last decade and are embedded in the daily lives of physicians, health care providers, and patients. Digital applications such as electronic medical records (EMRs), telemedicine, mobile health apps, and artificial intelligence (AI) have greatly enhanced the ability of physicians to provide state-of-the-art health care and translational research to oncology patients. A few examples of areas that have been improved by these technologic advancements include the following:

1. Diagnostics and Screening:
   1. Genomic sequencing: This technique, instrumental in precision medicine, identifies tumor-specific targets to improve the specificity of cancer treatment on a personalized, individual basis.
   2. Liquid biopsies: Using patient specimens, such as plasma, to detect circulating tumor DNA has revolutionized cancer diagnostics, early detection, treatment monitoring, and surveillance. This offers an extremely sensitive and practical way of monitoring for remission and/or early relapse detection in many tumor types.
   3. Radiomics: This technology provides an innovative approach to extracting quantitative data from medical imaging, such as CT or PET scans. This may also allow for more personalized data for tumor targeting.
2. Treatment Pathways and Decision Support: AI-driven clinical decision support systems enable hematology/oncology physicians to access patient data, medical literature, and clinical guidelines to create personalized treatment plans. This area has expanded significantly as knowledge and available treatment options for selected tumor types have increased. As new information is published, the modifications can be made quickly to keep the data current.
3. Health Care Data and Analytics: The EMR plays a crucial role in centralizing patient information, making it easily accessible and in a format flexible and optimized for billing. However, since the different EMR systems don’t interact well with others, this dream has not come to fruition—yet. EMRs are certainly a big advancement over paper charts, but improvements in digital interactions to complete connectivity still need further enhancements. The use of big data and analytics can be very powerful with the right data, infrastructure, and analytic tools.
4. Patient Education and Support: This is a powerful tool when used by legitimate health care providers, health care systems, and nonprofit organizations that specialize in disease-specific education and research support. Tools like mobile apps and patient portals allow access to education materials, resources, and communication between patients and the health care system. However, this is also a double-edged sword, as some online educational materials or misconceptions may mislead patients. Pointing out the difference between these educational materials to patients and families is very crucial.
5. Research and Clinical Trial Advancements: Real-world data often informs new directions for future clinical trials with cancer therapeutics. In addition, AI may also help with algorithms to identify eligible patients for specific clinical trials.

All of these digital health care applications have greatly improved clinical care and research in hematology/oncology over the past several decades. The future is bright for the development, testing through clinical trials, and eventual dissemination of novel therapies and treatments to improve the lives of our patients diagnosed with a malignancy.