Smartphone-Based Strategy for Quality-of-Life Monitoring in Head and Neck Cancer Survivors

Smartphone-based IoT systems have the potential to predict and keep control of Quality of Life measurements with the adequate design. This work aims to provide a comprehensive strategy for the development of a disease-specific application to monitor Quality of Life in Head and Neck Cancer survivors. This research first presents the results from a literature review focused on mHealth services for cancer patients. Second, we provide a complete overview of a clinical trial protocol where patients are encouraged to (1) perform self-management by actively reporting symptoms, (2) keep healthy lifestyles, (3) interact with an embedded artificial intelligence that serves as an additional patient-physician communication channel, and (4) fill in Quality of Life standard questionnaires from a web platform from home. The challenges addressed, the unobtrusive data collection procedures chosen, and the quality data obtained from physical, social, and behavioral measures, provide a resourceful set of guidelines and requirements for future research works aimed at after-treatment cancer patients monitoring through IoT portable devices.