Development of an evidence-informed implementation strategy for a digital supportive care platform for brain tumour patients, their carers and healthcare professionals.

Background: Implementation challenges of digital health solutions (DHSs) comprise complexities of behavioural change, resource limitation, inertia in existing systems, and failure to include consumer preferences. Understanding the factors which contribute to successful implementation of DHS is essential. We report the development of an implementation strategy for Brain Tumours Online (BT Online), a digital supportive care platform for patients with brain tumours, their carers and healthcare professionals.
Aim: To develop an evidence-informed implementation strategy for BT Online, considering the specific barriers and facilitators to implementing DHS for adults with a brain tumour and their carers and healthcare professionals.
Methods: A rapid review methodology was used to summarise factors relevant to implementation of DHS for people affected by cancer. Themes from the review were supported by implementation guidelines for DHS and the combined evidence informed the implementation strategy. Each theme was matched with specific steps for implementing BT Online.
Results: The rapid review identified 10 themes, namely, awareness of the new digital platform; institutional integration and support; data security, the quality, usability and accessibility of the platform; belief in the benefit of the platform; the need for holistic and tailored features; the timing of introducing the platform; engagement of healthcare professionals; and the re-definition of roles and workload. The themes were matched with 51 concrete implementation steps.
Discussion: The purpose of the strategy was to minimise risk of implementation failure, consider the specific context of care and generate a reference framework to evaluate BT Online prior to upscaling to use outside the research context. Our method contributes a novel approach of developing an evidence-informed rigorous implementation strategy if existing implementation frameworks do not apply.
Competing Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
(© The Author(s) 2025.)