Innovation in Cancer Treatment: The Impacts of Robotic-Assisted Surgery Adoption at the Brazilian National Cancer Institute.

Robotic-assisted surgery has been actively applied in several fields of minimally invasive surgery, and its use in cancer treatment is increasing. This technology has diffused rapidly, despite high costs and limited reimbursement. Studies have proven the positive results of robotic surgery for patients' quality of life. The objective of this article is to describe the impacts of robotic-assisted cancer surgery adoption at the Brazilian National Cancer Institute. A single qualitative case study was conducted with a descriptive approach, and to have triangulation, data were collected from 3 different sources - participant observation, technical reviews, and seven semi-structured interviews with the main actors involved in the case - and analyzed through content analysis. Despite the considerable costs associated with robotic surgery, this innovation dramatically decreases the length of hospital stay and reduces complications and rehabilitates the patient in a much faster way.

Big Data in Brazilian Cancer Surveillance.

Cancer research has a great importance across the world. It is responsible for data analysis of cancer incidence by region, ethnicity, gender, age, social and economic issues, and contributes to the assessment of population health necessities. Nowadays, Brazil has a complex cancer care scenario. There are nearly 600.000 new cancer cases each year. Cancer surveillance in Brazil is carried out by a network of cancer registries which together feed the data warehouse of cancer incidence across the country. The analysis of cancer data warehouses using Data Mining techniques may discover hidden relations among patients' data, cancer treatment, and disease surveillance. This paper presents the development of a Big Data project with the purpose to analyze the cancer incidence and mortality patterns within the different regions and population groups in Brazil.

Mobile Technology Applications in Cancer Palliative Care.

Mobile devices frequently used in other specialties can find great utility in palliative care. For healthcare professionals, the use of mobile technology not only can bring additional resources to the care, but it can actually radically change the cancer remote care practices. The Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA) has developed the largest cancer home care program in Latin America, which currently benefits more than 500 patients. The purpose of this paper is to show the development of an ICT environment of mobile applications developed to support the palliative cancer care program at INCA.