Revolutionary e-health App will support vulnerable cancer patients
The App is the first of its kind and is the result of a collaborative e-health research project coordinated by Australian Prostate Cancer Research and led by Urologist Dr Jim Duthie with support from leading App production company Appster.
There are approximately 25,000 men in Australia undergoing hormone therapy due to their advanced prostate cancer. The treatment is difficult for patients and requires a number of blood tests and health checks at different times due to the challenging side-effects of the drugs and the need to manage these carefully. The App is simply called “adt” – which stands for androgen deprivation therapy.
“As you can imagine, this is a terribly hard process for patients and their families, so anything that we can do to make information and support more accessible and help them manage will be a great outcome. The App provides automated reminders through push notifications direct to the phone, thereby providing a treatment management system patients can rely on. But more than anything, we aim to ease the tremendous burden that patients are already facing” said App creator Dr Duthie.
The patient, or their clinician, starts the App when treatment commences and it then automatically alerts the patient through their iPhone as to when their next test is required. It also tells them about the test and provides useful supporting information for each stage of the treatment.
“Each year around 3,000 men die of prostate cancer and the vast majority have drug therapy as part of their treatment. To deliver such a clinically relevant e-health innovation through collaborative research really shows that we can achieve great things when we work together. E-health is a major area of research for us to help deliver improved clinical support, in particular for regional and remote communities who face inequity of access” said James Garland, CEO of Australian Prostate Cancer Research.
The tool is easy to use, free of charge and can be accessed world-wide through the Apple App Store by searching for “adt” or visit www.hormonetherapyapp.org.au
