HKUMed-Developed App Reduces Hospitalisations for Advanced Cancer Patients

Hong Kong’s first integrated cancer health management application, SUPPORT+, has been proven to help advanced cancer patients maintain their quality of life while reducing the need for emergency visits and unplanned hospital stays.

The findings come from a randomised controlled trial conducted by the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Medicine between January 2023 and February 2025.

Dr Wendy Chan Wing-lok, Clinical Associate Professor of Practice at HKUMed’s Department of Clinical Oncology, noted that many patients with advanced cancer receive palliative care in community or home settings.

These patients often face physical, psychological, and social challenges. If symptoms worsen between scheduled clinic visits, delays in recognition can lead to missed opportunities for early intervention, potentially resulting in health deterioration and unplanned admissions.

SUPPORT+ addresses this problem by allowing patients and caregivers to record weekly physical and psychological symptoms. It then provides automated, symptom-specific self-management guidance in real time. If severe symptoms are detected, an alert is sent to dedicated nurses who follow up within one to two working days.

“By providing symptom self-assessment, symptom tracking and nurse-led support, SUPPORT+ enables patients and caregivers to monitor and manage health issues more effectively at home,” Dr Chan said. “Our study demonstrates that this patient-centred digital care model can strengthen community palliative care services, improve confidence in self-care, facilitate collaboration between healthcare and community care providers, and reduce avoidable hospital use.

The study recruited 1,214 patients with advanced cancer from six public hospitals, all of whom had stopped anticancer treatment and were receiving community-based palliative care. The median age was 78. Participants were randomly assigned to either usual care alone or usual care plus the SUPPORT+ service, followed for 18 weeks.

Unplanned hospitalisations were significantly lower in the intervention group (17.2%) versus the control group (28.5%). The average length of hospital stay also decreased from 7.3 days to 3.4 days for SUPPORT+ users. No significant differences were observed in emergency department visits or overall survival.

“As Hong Kong’s population continues to age and the number of cancer patients increases, innovative digital health solutions will play an increasingly important role in advancing cancer and palliative care services and improving home-based care for patients and their families”, Dr Chan said.