Prospective study of a web-mediated management of febrile neutropenia related to chemotherapy (Bioconnect).

BACKGROUND: We aimed to investigate whether patient self-evaluated symptoms transmitted via Internet is feasible between planned visits to provide an early management of fever and neutropenia induced by chemotherapy, and if it can reduce hospitalizations for severe neutropenia.

METHODS: Patients who received a chemotherapy regimen with an overall risk of febrile neutropenia ≥ 20% had to report daily temperature between physician planned visits using a web application. Fever and clinical signs of seriousness were reported to the physician (if some criteria were fulfilled in a specific algorithm) via automatic email notifications by the web application. Patients could be hospitalized quickly or could take over at home, make blood count, and take predefined oral antibiotics if indicated. Primary outcome was patient's compliance and satisfaction. The number and the cost of hospitalization were also assessed and compared with an historical cohort of patients with similar clinical conditions and treatment.

RESULTS: Among the 41 patients included, 36 (87.8%) used the web application with 88% of daily compliance and 90% (28/33) of satisfaction. One patient (2.7%) had planned hospitalization after the web application alert. In the historical cohort, the rate of unplanned hospitalization for febrile neutropenia was 17% (6 patients) and 2.7% (1 patient) in users of the web application cohort. The cumulative cost of hospitalization for neutropenia was USD 28,827 in the historical cohort and USD 6563 in the web application cohort.

CONCLUSION: Web-mediated follow-up of febrile neutropenia is feasible. It led to high patient satisfaction, high compliance, and a possible reduction of the number and the cost of hospitalizations.