Adoption, Acceptability, and Effectiveness of Community Software LINE Official Account for Oncological Case Management of Patients with Oral Cancer at Medical Center

Abstract Background: Cancer patients require cross-professional care during the diagnosis and treatment periods. Moreover, patients who recover from oral cancer often require an interdisciplinary team during the rehabilitation and tracking periods. Therefore, methods for effectively carrying out case management are essential to tumor care. Purpose: To investigate the effects of using the community software LINE Official Account on oncological case management with oral cancer, with the app providing self-care information and health-care advice. Methods: An experimental design was used; 100 patients with oral cancer participated. The patients were randomly divided into two groups by using a computer-generated random number table. The experimental group comprised 55 patients, whereas the control group included 45 patients. The experimental group used LINE Official Account, which gave them self-care information, timely messages, and one-on-one health-care consultations. The control group followed standard health-care practices. Results: In total, 40 patients in the experimental group were satisfied with the self-care information provided by LINE Official Account (86.9%). In total, 42 patients regularly checked the self-care information (89.4%). Among these patients, 25 of them would check the information when receiving a push notification (54.3%). Ten patients used the one-on-one health-care consultation system (20.0%). Their questions concerned oral infection, language and swallowing problems, nutrition, chemotherapy, psychological support, and registration problems. LINE Official Account had a significant effect on the rate of participation in support groups. Generalized estimating equations indicated a significant difference between the two groups regarding overall quality of life over 7 days (P = 0.023). Conclusion: Community software applications used in oncological case management can improve the self-management of patients and empower them. Moreover, applications also enable to track long-term follow-up effectiveness and reinforce the case manager’s role as a family therapist. Case managers are professionals to which patients can turn without needing to register or be referred. Therefore, this study recommends that case manager systems be incorporated into mobile applications to increase the sustainable management, accessibility, effectiveness, and satisfaction of oncological management systems. This study also provides the value of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with Good Health and Well-being, and decreased social withdrawal among patients with oral cancer.