Remote Monitoring Cuts Cancer Surgery Recovery Time

A new study co-authored by Tracy Crane, Ph.D., RDN, co-leader of the Cancer Control Program at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, shows that remote perioperative monitoring (RPM) significantly improves recovery for cancer surgery patients.

Published in npj Digital Medicine, the randomized trial compared RPM care to traditional surgeon-only care in 293 patients undergoing major abdominal or pelvic surgeries for gastrointestinal, genitourinary or gynecologic cancers.

Patients in the RPM group wore wristband accelerometers and reported symptoms via a mobile app before surgery and at regular intervals after discharge. When data deviated from preset thresholds, triage nurses proactively contacted patients. The control group received only automated messages.

Results showed a 6% greater functional recovery rate by day 14 after surgery (p = 0.036) and fewer major complications (p = 0.004). Patients also reported improved symptom management and less interference with daily activities.

"The first two weeks after discharge are critical," said Crane, director of lifestyle medicine, prevention and digital health at Sylvester. "RPM care helps bridge the gap between hospital and home, catching issues early and supporting recovery."

The study emphasized patient-reported outcomes and digital biomarkers, offering a scalable, unobtrusive way to monitor recovery. It included both English and Spanish-speaking participants, most of whom used their own devices.

"We designed this study to reflect real-world conditions," Crane said. "Our goal was to ensure the intervention was feasible and meaningful for patients and providers."

Crane uses digital innovation to enhance lifestyle medicine in cancer prevention and care. Central to this effort is the My Wellness Research platform, developed under her leadership. This platform collects patient-generated data such as nutrition, exercise and wearable device inputs, making it possible to integrate with clinical, genomic, imaging and sociodemographic information to create a comprehensive cancer data ecosystem. It enables remote monitoring and personalized treatment planning by allowing patients, health coaches and providers to communicate and track progress in real time.

While the technology plays a central role in a patient outcomes, Crane stressed that human intervention is key.

"It's the human response to these data that makes the difference," she explained. "To me, it's, "How do we work with computational sciences and digital health—all these technology methods—while still respecting and knowing when the human needs to be involved?'"

Digital technologies are transforming lifestyle medicine research and Dr. Crane emphasizes their central role in her work. Her interest began more than a decade ago during the LIVES study, a non-pharmacologic ovarian cancer trial involving more than 1,200 participants across 100 cancer centers. To manage a centralized, telephone-based intervention efficiently, she developed a cloud-based system that digitally recorded sessions, enabling fidelity monitoring and streamlined study management.

These recordings revealed untapped behavioral data, prompting further work to build natural language processing models that could analyze conversations, predict coaching needs and identify retraining opportunities.

At Sylvester, Crane incorporated these insights into the My Wellness Research platform, which records intervention sessions for protocol monitoring and a deeper understanding of patient needs, including language and symptom variations. Combined with data from wearables like Fitbits, the platform moves toward creating a personalized health profile for each patient, away from generic approaches toward tailored interventions.

In addition to RPM, Dr. Crane leads several other studies at Sylvester focused on lifestyle behaviors and cancer outcomes, including:

A study exploring personalized nutrition interventions for ovarian cancer patients.

A clinical trial investigating how diet and physical activity can reduce recurrence risk in survivors of breast, prostate and colon cancer.

Collaborative research with Sylvester's survivorship program to develop digital tools that support long-term lifestyle changes.

These initiatives reflect Crane's commitment to integrating lifestyle behavioral science into oncology care, helping patients and their support persons thrive during and after treatment.

Her work offers a glimpse into the future of surgical oncology, where digital tools, interdisciplinary collaboration and patient-centered care converge.

"This is a call to innovate," she said. "Tomorrow's providers should be comfortable with data streams from connected devices to harness these data and collaborate across disciplines, putting patients at the center of every decision. Technology can help us do this."