Patients’ and healthcare providers’ perceptions in outpatient palliative cancer care services at a tertiary care hospital in Sri Lanka: prospects for adoption of a digital health intervention

Advancement of digital health technologies have shifted patterns of health seeking and provision. Context specific stakeholder experience and needs in palliative cancer care should be explored to determine the prospects for adoption of digital health technologies. To describe perceptions of patients and providers in seeking and provision of out-patient palliative cancer care service provision to determine prospects for using a Digital Health Intervention (DHI). An exploratory sequential mixed method design explored the stakeholder perspectives in three phases at a cancer tertiary care center in Sri Lanka. Ten patients participated in interviews and 80 completed self-administered questionnaires. Four health Care Providers (HCPs) participated in interviews. Findings revealed high symptom burden, difficulties in reaching palliative clinic, need for remote communication and lack of familiarity with technology as key patient issues. HCPs were aware of patients’ symptom burden and assessed symptoms using validated tools. They recognized the need for remote management, importance of caregiver support and need for electronic database to maintain patient records. If available, HCPs were willing to use digital health technologies and data generated by patients to manage urgent heath issues remotely despite their doubts about quality and reliability of data. Findings emphasize the value of understanding the stakeholder needs and capabilities in the process of adoption of DHIs. There is a stakeholder motivation to adopt a DHI to potentially solve unmet needs in the setting. However, researchers must consider the context specific facilitators and barriers.