A thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews exploring attitudes and needs for digital supportive care among patients with cancer and survivors

The literature has reported inequality in access to both medical and psychosocial supportive care in oncology for which digital health technologies (e.g., wireless technologies, telemedicine) may be a suitable solution. Given attitudes could influence acceptability of such tools, this pre-registered qualitative study aimed to investigate patients’ and survivors’ attitudes toward digital psychosocial supportive care interventions and needs. A total of 36 patients (31 female, five male; mean age = 49.86 ± 10.93 years) were recruited for semi-structured interviews. Patients were found to have positive attitudes toward the digitalization of supportive care. However, they had some concerns, including about the complementarity between digital and in-person care and the security of data, which should be considered during the development of interventions. Participants asked for a participative design, transparency during intervention development, and frequent user experience evaluations for tailored interventions. Those findings lead to recommendations for the development of future digital interventions.