A Secure Occupational Therapy Framework for Monitoring Cancer Patients' Quality of Life

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Biomedical Informatics
• Internet of Things (IoT)

Background:

• Maintaining quality of life (QoL) post-cancer treatment is challenging due to treatment side effects and organ function changes.
• Accurate physiological status monitoring is crucial for effective patient care and timely interventions.
• Current methods may not adequately capture the dynamic QoL changes in a patient's home environment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel blockchain and off-chain-based framework for capturing and sharing cancer patients' QoL data.
• To enable secure, real-time data sharing from in-home sensors with healthcare providers and relevant stakeholders.
• To leverage blockchain for immutable data analytics and visualization for improved clinical decision support.

Main Methods:

• Development of a hybrid blockchain and off-chain architecture integrating medical and ambient intelligent IoT sensors.
• Implementation of secure data sharing protocols for transactional records and multimedia big data.
• Creation of blockchain-based data analytics for visualizing immutable patient data history.

Main Results:

• The proposed framework facilitates the secure capture and sharing of QoL information from the home environment.
• Transactional records and multimedia big data can be shared for real-time oncologist and palliative care decision support.
• Blockchain-based analytics provide clinicians with an immutable history for better patient state understanding.

Conclusions:

• The developed framework offers a secure and effective method for monitoring cancer patients' QoL at home.
• Real-time data analytics and visualization enhance clinical insights into patient status.
• The current implementation shows promising results, encouraging further development in digital health for cancer care.