Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Building a Personalized Cancer Treatment System

  • Transactional Processing Systems
  • Published:
Journal of Medical Systems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper reports the process by which a personalized cancer treatment system was built, following a user-centered approach. We give some background on personalized cancer treatment, the particular tumor chemosensitivity assay supported by the system, as well as some quality and legal issues related to such health systems. We describe how Contextual Design was applied when building the system. Contextual design is a user-centered design technique involving seven steps. We also provide some details about the system implementation. Finally, we explain how the Think-Aloud protocol and Heuristic Evaluation methods were used to evaluate the system and report its results. A qualitative assessment from the users perspective is also provided. Results from the heuristic evaluation indicate that only one of ten heuristics was missing from the system, while five were partially covered and four were fully covered.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1 The HCI expert states that there is no conflict of interest since he did not participate in the design of the system nor in its implementation.

References

  1. Lippert, T., Ruoff, H.-J., Volm, M., Intrinsic and acquired drug resistance in Malignant tumors. the main reason for therapeutic failure. Arzneimittelforschung 58(6):261–264, 2008.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Kitano, H., Cancer as a robust system: implications for anticancer therapy. Nat. Rev. Cancer 4(3):227–235, 2004. 03.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Lippert, T., Ruoff, H.-J., Volm, M., Intrinsic and acquired drug resistance in Malignant tumors. the main reason for therapeutic failure. Arzneimittelforschung 58(6):261–264, 2008.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Kurbacher, C. M., and Cree, I. A., Chemosensitivity testing using microplate adenosine triphosphate-based luminescence measurements. Methods Mol. Med. 110:101–120, 2005.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Doern, G., and Brecher, S., The clinical predictive value (or lack thereof) of the results of in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility tests. J. Clin. Microbiol. 49:S11–S14, 2011.

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Potti, A., Dressman, H., Bild, A., Riedel, R., Chan, G., Sayer, R., Cragun, J., Cottrill, H., Kelley, M., Petersen, R., Harpole, D., Marks, J., Berchuck, A., Ginsburg, G., Febbo, P., Lancaster, J., Nevins, J., Genomic signatures to guide the use of chemotherapeutics. Nat. Med. 12:1294–1300, 2006.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Kolata, G.: How bright promise in cancer testing fell apart. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/health/research/08genes.html (2011)

  8. Potti, A., Dressman, H. K., Bild, A., Riedel, R. F., Chan, G., Sayer, R., Cragun, J., Cottrill, H., Kelley, M. J., Petersen, R., Harpole, D., Marks, J., Berchuck, A., Ginsburg, G. S., Febbo, P., Lancaster, J., Nevins, J. R., Retraction: Genomic signatures to guide the use of chemotherapeutics. Nat. Med. 17(1):135–135, 2011.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Baggerly, K., and Coombes, K., Deriving chemosensitivity from cell lines: Forensic bioinformatics and reproducible research in high-throughput biology. Ann. Appl. Stat. 3(4):1309–1334 , 2009.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Potti, A., Dressman, H. K., Bild, A., Riedel, R. F., Chan, G., Sayer, R., Cragun, J., Cottrill, H., Kelley, M. J., Petersen, R., Harpole, D., Marks, J., Berchuck, A., Ginsburg, G. S., Febbo, P., Lancaster, J., Retraction, J. R. N., Genomic signatures to guide the use of chemotherapeutics. Nat. Med. 17(1):135–135, 2011.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Institute of Medicine, Statement on Quality of Care. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Carter, J. L, Coletti, R. J, Harris, R. P: Quantifying and monitoring overdiagnosis in cancer screening: a systematic review of methods. BMJ, 350 (2015)

  13. Dickinson, R., Hall, S., Sinclair, J., Bond, C., Murchie, P., Using technology to deliver cancer follow-up: a systematic review. BMC Cancer 14(1):1–16, 2014.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Melnikow, J., Fenton, J. J., Whitlock, E. P., Miglioretti, D. L., Weyrich, M. S., Thompson, J. H., Kunal, S., Supplemental screening for breast cancer in women with dense breasts A systematic review for the u.s. preventive services task forcesupplemental breast cancer screening in women with dense breasts. Ann. Intern. Med. 164(4):268–278, 2016.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Chaudhry, B., Wang, J., Shinyi, W., Maglione, M., Mojica, W., Roth, E., Morton, S., Shekelle, P., Systematic review: Impact of health information technology on quality, efficiency, and costs of medical care. Ann. Intern. Med. 144(10):742–752, 2006.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Institute of Medicine, Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Tseng, W.-T., Chiang, W.-F., Liu, S.-Y., Roan, J., Lin, C.-N., The application of data mining techniques to oral cancer prognosis. J. Med. Syst. 39(5):1–7, 2015.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Aytac Korkmaz, S., and Poyraz, M., A new method based for diagnosis of breast cancer cells from microscopic images Dwee—jht. J. Med. Syst. 38(9):1–9, 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Chao, C.-M., Ya-Wen, Y., Cheng, B.-W., Kuo, Y.-L., Construction the model on the breast cancer survival analysis use support vector machine, logistic regression and decision tree. J. Med. Syst. 38(10):1–7, 2014.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Tsai, M.-H., Wang, H.-C., Lee, G.-W., Lin, Y.-C., Chiu, S.-H., A decision tree based classifier to analyze human ovarian cancer cdna microarray datasets. J. Med. Syst. 40(1):1–8, 2015.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Cai, K., Yang, R., Chen, H., Ning, H., Ma, A., Zhou, J., Huang, W., Shanxing, O., Simulation and visualization of liver cancer ablation focus in optical surgical navigation. J. Med. Syst. 40(1):1–7, 2015.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Tourassi, G., Yoon, H.-J., Songhua, X., A novel web informatics approach for automated surveillance of cancer mortality trends. J. Biomed. Inform. 61:110–118, 2016.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Defossez, G., Rollet, A., Dameron, O., Ingrand, P., Temporal representation of care trajectories of cancer patients using data from a regional information system: an application in breast cancer. BMC Med. Inform. Decis. Mak. 14(1):1–15, 2014.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Jacko, J. A.: The Human-Computer Interaction Handbook: fundamentals, Evolving Technologies, and Emerging Applications, 3rd edn. CRC Press (2012)

  25. Beyer, H., and Holtzblatt, K., Contextual design. Interactions 6(1):32–42, 1999.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Yen, P.-Y., and Suzanne, B., A comparison of usability evaluation methods Heuristic evaluation versus end-user think-aloud protocol –an example from a web-based communication tool for nurse scheduling. AMIA Ann. Symp. Proc. 2009:714–718, 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Jaspers, M. W. M., A comparison of usability methods for testing interactive health technologies: Methodological aspects and empirical evidence. Int. J. Med. Inform. 78(5):340–353 , 2009.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Nielsen, J., and Molich, R.: Heuristic evaluation of user interfaces. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI ’90, pages 249–256, New York NY, USA, ACM (1990)

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Research Center on Information and Communication Technologies (CITIC) and the Department of Computer and Information Science (ECCI) at the University of Costa Rica, under grant No. 834-B3-174. It was also partially supported by the Research Center on Tropical Diseases (CIET) and the Costa Rican Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications. The HCI researchers that collaborated in this project were also supported by CITIC under grant No. 834-B4-159.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Escuela de Ciencias de la Computación e Informática (ECCI), Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica

    Alexandra Martinez

  2. Centro de Investigaciones en Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (CITIC), Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica

    Gustavo López, Constantino Bola nos, Daniel Alvarado, Andrés Solano & Mariana López

  3. Hospital Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia, San José, Costa Rica

    Andrés Báez

  4. Centro de Investigación en Enfermedades Tropicales, Facultad de Microbiología (CIET), Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica

    Steve Quirós & Rodrigo Mora

Authors
  1. Alexandra Martinez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gustavo López
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Constantino Bola nos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Daniel Alvarado
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Andrés Solano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Mariana López
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Andrés Báez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Steve Quirós
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Rodrigo Mora
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexandra Martinez.

Additional information

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Transactional Processing Systems

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Martinez, A., López, G., Bola nos, C. et al. Building a Personalized Cancer Treatment System. J Med Syst 41, 28 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-016-0678-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-016-0678-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation