We are pleased to announce that Careology has collaborated with patients and clinicians from The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, to provide emotional well-being support to teenagers and young people during their cancer treatment.
Funded by The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, the Careology app will provide access to a wide range of content specifically tailored for the needs of young people. It will include information on the topics identified by young people as most important to them including managing symptoms, fatigue, body image, food and nutrition and mental health support, specifically around dealing with anxiety.
Paul Landau, CEO of Careology said:
“We’re really pleased to have been chosen to be part of this special project with The Royal Marsden. Going through cancer at any age is incredibly tough but when you’re young and missing out on school or social activities it’s especially hard. It’s been great to be able to curate specific content together, in a way which specifically works for this group of patients at The Royal Marsden. We want every young adult who uses Careology to feel more informed and empowered with access to digital support whenever and wherever they need it.”
The Royal Marsden’s Youth Forum have been involved with the collaboration since the very start. From choosing Careology’s digital cancer care app in a review of many different app providers to providing content within the app. The content has been codeveloped by 16–24-year-old patients and their clinicians. For each theme, a representative from The Royal Marsden’s TYA Youth Forum was paired up with a clinician, such as a lead nurse, occupational therapist, or nutritionist, to ensure information is both accurate and appeals to a young person going through or recovering from treatment. This content will complement information from Trekstock and other charities, also available through the app.
Emma Thistlethwayte, Teenage and Young Adult Lead Nurse at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said:
"We are so pleased that the Careology app will enhance the psychological support available to our teenage and young adult patients at The Royal Marsden. Being diagnosed with cancer at a young age is life-changing, and it affects people emotionally as well as physically. A number of our young patients are referred to our psychological support service, which is funded by The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. We wanted to provide further mental health support to them through every stage of their diagnosis, treatment and beyond, and Careology’s solution enables exactly that.
Incorporating the patient voice was very important to us, and the tools and resources in the app will support and empower patients to contribute to their own emotional well-being and overall health.”
Lauren Merry, 21, who is a member of The Youth Forum at The Royal Marsden helped to develop content for the app by writing top tips for other young cancer patients. Lauren was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2015 when she was only 14 years old. After relapsing a couple of years later, she was treated at The Royal Marsden’s Oak Centre for Children and Young People. Lauren went on to get the all-clear in December 2017 and now helps to support other young patients who are going through their own cancer diagnosis through the Youth Forum.
Lauren Merry, A Royal Marsden Youth Forum member commented:
“We should all be looking after our mental well-being anyway but with a cancer diagnosis, it’s something that becomes even more important. As something which has been co-developed by young patients who have been through a cancer experience, I think it will make a huge difference in supporting other young people and making them feel less alone. If you’re having an ‘up’ or a ‘down’ day, it will provide articles that support you.”
Symptom tracking features within the Careology app enable the young person to record the symptoms and feelings they are experiencing. As a result, they are shown personalised and age-specific content including peer-to-peer advice, poems, tips, articles and recipes.
Careology plans to share the content in the app with other hospitals wishing to help TYA cancer patients. Providing digital technology to support teenagers and young adults living with cancer, will ease the backlog of psychological support lines, and free up time spent with clinicians.
Today’s news follows a string of high-profile tie-ups between Careology and a number of leading healthcare organisations, including Aviva, Nuffield Health, RedArc and Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust - one of the leading centres in the UK for cancer treatment and research. Careology is a strategic partner of Macmillan Cancer Support, providing a direct line through the Careology app to call the Macmillan Support Line, to receive psychological support.
About Careology
Careology is building the world’s leading digital cancer care platform. By equipping and seamlessly connecting patients, caregivers and healthcare teams in a complex pathway, our mission is to use technology to transform traditional cancer care and change everyone’s cancer story for the better. Today the platform allows patients to manage and navigate all aspects of treatment from their device, while leveraging critical data on symptoms, medications, side effects and more, to deliver insight and analysis to clinical teams through a ‘virtual ward’. By increasing the potential for patients to self-serve, improving workflows, making 24/7 monitoring possible and putting a unique data set to work, we are helping to relieve pressure on health systems, while reducing costs, improving patient and clinician experience, and optimising health outcomes.
About The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity
The Royal Marsden opened its doors in 1851 as the world’s first hospital dedicated to cancer diagnosis, treatment, research and education.
Today, together with its academic partner, The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), it is the largest and most comprehensive cancer centre in Europe seeing and treating over 59,000 NHS and private patients every year. It is a centre of excellence with an international reputation for groundbreaking research and pioneering the very latest in cancer treatments and technologies.
The Royal Marsden, with the ICR, is the only National Institute for Health and Care Research Biomedical Research Centre for Cancer. This supports pioneering research work carried out over a number of different cancer themes.
The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity raises money solely to support The Royal Marsden, a world-leading cancer centre. It ensures Royal Marsden nurses, doctors and research teams can provide the very best care and develop life-saving treatments, which are used across the UK and around the world.
From funding state-of-the-art equipment and ground-breaking research, to creating the very best patient environments, The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity will never stop looking for ways to improve the lives of people affected by cancer.
