Survivor Mobile Phone App

Description:

Improving outcomes of children diagnosed with cancer is one of the triumphs of modern medicine. At present, nearly 80% of children diagnosed with cancer will be long-term survivors. The Survivors of Childhood Cancer Program at UCSF provides comprehensive medical, nursing, and psychosocial consultation to provide education for childhood cancer survivors as well as their families and health care providers. A detailed history and physical examination is performed and a comprehensive summary letter of the survivor’s current and future health care follow-up recommendations is sent to the survivor’s primary care physician.

All survivors also receive an educational “Survivor Healthcare Passport” to provide a succinct, credit card-sized summary of their therapy and follow-up recommendations (see below).  The follow-up recommendations are individualized and are based on the therapy that the patient received.  In other words, different types of chemotherapy, surgery, and fields of radiation therapy trigger different types of follow-up tests and how often they are needed.  The follow-up recommendations are provided by the Children’s Oncology Group, a National Cancer Institute supported clinical trials group.  

Many patients find the “Survivor Healthcare Passport” very helpful due to its portability and concise nature.  However, some patients have expressed interest in having an interactive tool that can alert them about any follow-up tests they may be due for.

We propose to develop a mobile Survivors App as an additional tool to help cancer patients be aware of their recommended follow-up. Users will use the application to enter the details of the therapy they received such as the names and doses of chemotherapy, the types of surgeries, and the fields and doses of radiation therapy.  The application will then display the recommended follow-up based on the entered therapy. For example, if a user enters a cumulative dose of over 300 milligrams per meter squared of doxorubicin as part of his or her therapy, the application will indicate that an echocardiogram should be done annually. The application will hopefully be associated with a calendar which can alert users that they are due for specific follow-up tests. 

Impact: Could be used by all of our patients undergoing cancer therapy at UCSF and beyond.

Team Members:

Robert Goldsby, MD - Director of the Survivors of Childhood Cancer Program

Linda Li – Coordinator for the Survivors of Childhood Cancer Program

Benjamin Braun, MD, PhD – Pediatric Oncologist, Ancillary IT Input

Needed member – IT specialist to help convert the material into a mobile application