Identification & creation of a treatment support platform for patients on oral chemotherapy

The aim of this project was to increase treatment autonomy and care participation of patients undergoing oral chemotherapy. This was done by enabling patients to increase their health literacy and by providing additional support during cancer treatment.

Traditionally, adherence to oral chemotherapy is suboptimal. This might lead to worse outcomes. Research suggests that up to 40% of patients taking oral chemotherapy are not taking their medication as prescribed. Simultaneously, patients often feel overwhelmed with the information they receive and feel lost in their care trajectory.

We have experience working with various healthcare actors and understand the opportunities of, and barriers to creating a strategy and actually implementing novel tools to support patients in the clinical practice. By working closely with the medical team of the hospital, we developed a strategy that was accepted by the healthcare providers in clinical practice. We also developed and supported the implementation of the solution. The solution was embedded into the electronic health record and allows hospital-specific care paths to be set up, aimed at empowering patients and improving the efficiency of healthcare-patient interactions.

A multi-disciplinary series of workshops was set up to agree on the scope of the project, assess the required level of approvals (ethical, IT, regulatory, legal) and further fine tune the solution by acquiring user feedback (HCP, patients,..). Regular meetings were planned with the medical staff to embed the care paths for specific treatment options and to validate the material. A testing phase with stakeholders allowed optimization of the platform and workflows, followed by an implementation phase.

This tool has been proven to reduce stress in patients while increasing their level of empowerment. Simultaneously, the healthcare teams feel more in control of the patients they care for, allowing a better patient-healthcare professional communication. Patients have reported improved outcomes in the areas of reduced psychological stress and feeling more in control of their health condition. The system was embedded into the electronic health record of the hospital.

More details available on request.