Kenneth Bonett

Developing and Utilizing a Smart Phone Based App to Educate and Engage At Risk Patient Population in Lung Cancer Screening

Kenneth Bonett, Cherie Erkmen, MD, Grace X. Ma, Ph.D, Joel Erblich Ph.D, MPH, Jessica Magarinos, MD, Kristine Chin

¹ Department of Surgery, Temple University; Department of Thoracic Medicine and Surgery, Temple University
² Center for Asian Health, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
³ Hunter College of The City University of New York, New York, NY

In the United States, there are immense disparities in Lung Cancer outcomes among different ethnic and racial groups. These disparities are primarily due to differences in social determinants of health and patient education between groups. One of the biggest factors that have the potential to ameliorate these disparities and decrease deaths from Lung Cancer is Lung Cancer Screening (LCS) by using Low Dose Computed Tomography (LDCT). Adherence to LCS among underserved populations with risk factors and/or have been diagnosed with Lung Cancer is low. Given the importance of LCS, our intervention is focused on increasing accessibility, adherence, and education to this process.

The intervention in this study is to utilize Opti-Health, a customizable phone application which has the potential to increase patient adherence to their LCS appointments and educate patients on Lung Cancer and LCS. Knowledge gaps that have been found in this field of research include how medical compliance and appointment attendance increases when patients receive reminders via phone and how patient education resources are above the average patient’s comprehension level of medical topics. The impact of this intervention has the potential to be long lasting as patients can trust in their health care providers to give them optimal care through engagement and education by this innovative mode of connection.