Poster Presentation Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting 2022

e-ENHANCE: co-design of an e-platform to enhance personalised nutrition and physical activity for management of cancer-related malnutrition and muscle loss (#347)

Nicole Kiss 1 , Emily McNeil 1 , Eric O 2 , Brenton Baguley 1 , Robin M Daly 1 , Linda Denehy 3 , Lara Edbrooke 3 , Abbas Khosravi 4 , Patricia M Livingston 5 , Jenelle Loeliger 6 , Natalie Maxwell Davic 7 , Nicki Colls 7 , Victoria White 8 , Anna Ugalde 9
  1. Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
  2. Digital Engagement, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
  3. Physiotherapy Department, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  4. Institute for Intelligent Systems Research adn Innovation, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia
  5. Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
  6. Nutrition and Speech Pathology Department, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  7. Community Representative, Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  8. School of Psychology, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
  9. Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia

Background: Access to nutrition and exercise services for people with cancer-related malnutrition varies widely across health services. This study aimed to develop a web-based platform, co-designed with health professionals and consumers, to enhance current clinical care and improve access to evidence-based nutrition and exercise programs for people with cancer-related malnutrition.

Methods: Oncology health professionals and people with a lived experience of cancer-related malnutrition were invited to participate in co-design interviews to understand perceptions of the critical components of a web-based platform to deliver evidence-based nutrition and physical activity advice. Health professionals were also asked to consider how the platform could be implemented into practice. Interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis completed to determine common needs and concepts. Feedback from the co-design interviews informed the creation of the e-ENHANCE web-platform.

Results: Interviews based on co-design methods were completed with 14 health professionals (100% female, mean (range) age 59.5 (25-57) years) and 5 people with cancer (100% female, mean (range) age 53.5 (57-62) years). Health professionals noted the need to consider patient characteristics with regard to accessing the platform, particularly variations in health and technology literacy, motivation and current health status. Features deemed important by health professionals and people with cancer included simple messages, incorporating user-friendly images and video, reminders and rewards, engaging (interactive) content, comprehensive and credible information, personalised content and easy navigation. Clinician awareness and endorsement, sustainability, flexibility and variations in service provision within health services were identified as important considerations for implementation into practice.

Conclusions: People with cancer and health professionals informed the development of the e-ENHANCE platform which features evidence-based content designed for varying degrees of health literacy with the ability to tailor content to individual needs. Future work will involve user acceptance testing, refining the platform with consumers and a pilot trial of e-ENHANCE within health services.