Cancer Challenge projects win £100k funding
19 Feb 2018
Cancer patients in Scotland could soon be able to share their symptoms with their doctors in real time using new technology from two new Scottish projects, which each won £100,000 to progress to the second phase of the SFC-funded .
The two projects record so-called ‘Patient-Reported Outcome Measures’ (PROMs) and ‘Patient-Reported Experience Measures’ (PREMs) and integrate them with NHS technology systems. Allowing cancer patients to record symptoms such as pain, nausea or tiredness as they experience them gives doctors a more accurate understanding of their condition and how they are responding to treatment.
Dr Catherine Calderwood, Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer, said: “Ensuring that the person receiving care is at the centre of medical decision making is crucial. Getting accurate information from patients about their symptoms at the time they are experiencing them is core to this. This is particularly pertinent for people with cancer. How they feel really matters.”
The two winning projects are:
OWise – an app developed by Px HealthCare for breast cancer patients, which “nudges” patients to contact the Cancer Treatment Helpline in reaction to certain symptoms in a bid to address Scots’ reticence to ‘be a bother’. The tool integrates with a patient management system widely used throughout NHS Scotland.
My Clinical Outcomes (MCO) – a web platform used to collect and analyse variation in patient-reported outcomes. Patients answer regular assessments and track the impact of their condition on their life through a personal dashboard.
Both allow doctors to instantly access information to inform their clinical decisions.
The projects now have six months to further develop their prototypes and further demonstrate their benefits and roll-out potential.
The Cancer Innovation Challenge aims to inspire data and tech innovations to help Scotland become a world leader in cancer care. It is funded by the Scottish Funding Council and delivered by three Scottish innovation centres – led by The Data Lab and supported by the Digital Health and Care Institute (DHI) and Stratified Medicine Scotland (SMS).