New research to revolutionise healthcare through remote monitoring of patients

In February this year, a team of researchers, including Professor Emma Ream and Dr Jo Armes of the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, King’s College London, launched a new programme of research called eSMART (Electronic Symptom Management using ASyMS Remote Technology). The project uses mobile phone technology to remotely monitor patients who are undergoing chemotherapy to treat breast, bowel and blood cancers.

The project, being led by researchers at the University of Surrey in partnership with King’s College London and ten other academic institutions across the world, will use the Advanced Symptom Management System (ASyMS) to allow patients to report the side effects from their chemotherapy via a mobile phone.  The information is sent securely to a computer, which assesses their symptoms and triggers alerts to doctors or nurses within minutes if the patient requires a specialist intervention, while also providing patients with real-time information and advice on how to manage their symptoms at home, without the need to travel to hospital.  

Researchers believe that using ASyMS will reduce the side effects of chemotherapy, and help to identify and treat those which are life-threatening much quicker than current care systems.  In addition, it is anticipated that the use of ASyMS will significantly reduce healthcare costs.

A €6 million grant, from the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme, will fund a large 1,000 patient trial in England, Austria, Greece, Holland, Ireland and Norway, with the hope that the new system will be integrated into routine cancer care in the future.  The research team is also developing and testing the system for use by people with other types of cancer and long-term conditions such as heart failure.

Professor Emma Ream and Dr Jo Armes, will be joint principal investigators on a major part of the project that looks at the capture and analysis of follow up data to determine longer term outcomes of using the system.  

Speaking after the launch of the project, Emma Ream, Professor of Supportive Cancer Care, King’s College London, said, “Effective management of symptoms during chemotherapy is critical for patient safety and quality of life. However, we don't know how optimal symptom management during treatment impacts survival and longer term side effects after treatment ends. This is what we will be able to determine through this work.”

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Notes to editors

For further information please contact Oliver Stannard, Communications Officer, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, on 020 7848 3062 or oliver.stannard@kcl.ac.uk.

For more information about the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, please visit the about the School webpage.

For further information about King's please visit our 'King's in Brief' page.