Who is your ideal peer mentor? A qualitative study to identify cancer patient preferences for a digital peer support...

Peer support can provide many benefits to cancer patients. However, sustained use of one-on-one peer support requires a good match between patient and peer mentor. Using an artificial intelligence (AI) matching algorithm has the potential to improve peer matching by achieving complex, preference-based matching. Therefore, using stakeholder co-design, this study identified patient preferences for peer matching criteria and other features of OpalBuddy, a digital peer support service to be developed within the Opal patient portal.

Patients using the Opal app were recruited, and semi-structured individual interviews were carried out with eight available women cancer patients. Qualitative data analysis followed an iterative and collaborative thematic analysis approach, using computer-assisted software (NVivo).

Three themes, with supporting sub-themes, that describe patient preferences for matching with an ideal peer mentor were identified: Theme 1. An ideal mentor can provide support at multiple levels, with sub-themes describing the levels: (A) Sharing illness experiences, (B) Practical information support, (C) Emotional support, (D) Social management coaching. Theme 2. The ideal mentor has similar lived experience, with sub-themes describing the type of lived experience: (A) Similar clinical situation, (B) Similar socio-demographics, (C) Interpersonal affinity. Theme 3. The ideal peer mentor will be supported in their role, with sub-themes describing support options: (A) Formal or informal training, (B) General guidance, (C) Supportive supervision. Finally, based on different support needs (practical vs emotional), it was found that patients had varying, even opposing, expectations from a mentor's interpersonal communication style (solution focused vs good listener).

Patient preferences for an ideal peer mentor were identified through semi-structured interviews with a sample of eight women with a diverse set of cancers. Findings will be used to guide further work, including a similar study with men and a pilot study of a digital patient matching service for peer support in the open-source Opal patient portal.