A web application that allows cancer patients to enter data on symptoms also sends alerts to physicians in the event that immediate support is needed.

The tool, which can be used on a smartphone or the internet, analyzes a patient's information and can send an email alert to the health team if the symptoms are negative, according to a MedPage Today article.

"If [patients] were doing poorly, then they were immediately put in contact with their physician," Paul Bunn, M.D., of the University of Colorado Cancer Center in Denver, said in the article. "So they didn't get sick in the interval between physician visits."

Trial results were so positive, according to the article, it was stopped early. More than 100 patients were part of the trial and received either standard care or care mediated by the tool. For patients using the app, relapse was at zero or one for about 80 percent of patients, compared to 35 percent for those who did not use the tool.

The use of patient-generated data in care, such as through this application, continues to grow in the industry.

Geisinger Health System is pressing forward in using patient data in real time, while Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota is using Fitbit devices for a research effort regarding sleep behavior and activity among children diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

To learn more:
- read the MedPage Today article