Background: Intervention research in healthcare faces several persistent challenges, including limited co-construction, insufficient consideration of contextual factors, poor transferability of findings, a lack of theoretical grounding, and the absence of rigorous evaluation of mechanisms, benefits, and limitations. Many interventions are misaligned with real-world care pathways and often neglect the specific needs of patients and their relatives. These gaps are particularly evident in oncology, where comprehensive support remains a significant unmet need. Developing effective and sustainable digital tools requires the active involvement of stakeholders and alignment with clinical realities.
Objective: To address these issues, our aim was to identify the needs, facilitators, and barriers experienced by patients, relatives, and healthcare professionals in the development and implementation of a digital supportive care intervention in oncology.
Methodology: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 36 patients with cancer (in treatment or remission), 20 relatives, and 43 healthcare professionals (e, g. physicians, nurses, psychologists, healthcare manager). Data were analyzed using thematic analysis.
Results: Three themes were identified across participants accounts. (1) They reported both benefits (e.g., improved access to information and care, enhanced communication) and (2) concerns (e.g., risk of isolated digitalization without human support, lack of personalization, complexity of use). (3) Implementation-related factors emerged across individual, relational, contextual, and technological levels. These findings highlight the importance of anticipating the conditions necessary for the adoption, engagement, and long-term integration of digital solutions, while taking into account systemic constraints inherent to clinical environments.
Conclusion: The results underscore the value of adopting an ecological approach to the development of digital health interventions. Grounding these tools in real-world contexts increases their relevance, acceptability, and scalability. These results could be useful to develop digital supportive care tools tailored to user needs and designed to alleviate emotional distress in cancer patients and their relatives.