President's Cancer Panel

The President’s Cancer Panel held a workshop entitled Engaging Patients with Connected Health Technologies on December 11, 2014, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The workshop brought together leaders in academia, technology, government, advocacy, and health care to explore how use of new technologies by health care systems and patients/individuals could transform management of health and chronic diseases, including cancer. Participants discussed the current landscape, ways in which connected health technologies could improve prevention and management of cancer across the continuum, and barriers to realizing the full potential of connected health. Areas of high priority were identified as potential topics for subsequent workshops in the Panel’s series.

Several invited participants presented examples of emerging technologies that are being used by individuals to monitor and self-manage various health conditions, leading to increased patient engagement and empowerment. They also discussed the potential for connected health technologies and strategies to facilitate integration of patient-reported data—including nonclinical data—with health system data in order to improve understanding of health and disease, support clinical decision making, and promote healthy behaviors.

Workshop participants reflected on the desired future state for connected health from the perspectives of individuals, clinical institutions, and society. A key theme that emerged is that it is not sufficient to put patients at the center of existing health care systems. To be effective, health care must become integrated with and adapt to the real-world environments in which people live. Central to this paradigm shift is the need to recognize, understand, and take into account the many social, cultural, and economic factors that influence health and health-related decision making. Connected health can support this integration, in part by allowing individuals to more fully engage in their own care and gain access to not just their own health data, but also to a larger pool of shared population data.

To capitalize on opportunities afforded by connected health, clinical institutions must improve the ways they capture, analyze, and provide access to data. Careful consideration must be given to policies, regulations, and informed consent processes to ensure that data can be utilized effectively by providers, researchers, and patients. Novel analytic methods may be needed. It also is important that, starting with the design phase, technology developers solicit input from target users—including traditionally underserved populations—and take into account the systems in which technologies will be used.

Results from this workshop will inform planning for subsequent meetings in the Panel’s series on connected health and cancer. Findings and recommendations from the series will be presented in the Panel’s 2014–2015 Annual Report to the President of the United States.

A detailed meeting summary can be accessed here.