Automated Screening for Distress: A Perspective for the Future
This work tackles the challenge of improving psychological well-being for cancer patients through automated screening, but it is incremental as it builds on existing tools and technologies.
The paper addresses the problem of low implementation of routine distress screening in cancer patients despite existing tools, and highlights efforts to use emerging informatics and computational technologies for automated screening.
Distress is a complex condition which affects a significant percentage of cancer patients and may lead to depression, anxiety, sadness, suicide and other forms of psychological morbidity. Compelling evidence supports screening for distress as a means of facilitating early intervention and subsequent improvements in psychological well-being and overall quality of life. Nevertheless, despite the existence of evidence based and easily administered screening tools, for example, the Distress Thermometer, routine screening for distress is yet to achieve widespread implementation. Efforts are intensifying to utilise innovative, cost effective methods now available through emerging technologies in the informatics and computational arenas.