The idea came from originally the institute we worked for, that’s Dr Bram Kuiper and myself, we worked for the Helen Dowling Instituut, it’s a psycho-oncological institute in The Netherlands. We discovered that via an internet therapy we could help cancer patients who suffered from fatigue. Because internet therapy, you cannot scale it up very easily, we thought of developing an app so that we could help millions, hopefully, of cancer patients each year.
So how does it work?
The app is on your phone, you can download it on your mobile phone. It works with a daily programme and the daily programme consists of four themes, four parts. For example, physical exercise, themes like how to deal with boundaries, how to deal with anxiety; also there are stress reduction exercises, so it helps you to stress down. You use it each day, you get tips from positive psychology and it helps you feel better. The thing is we need you to use it every day and make sure you have the four topics covered every day.
What main challenges did you face when you were developing it?
Lots of challenges. First of all, at first we thought it would be easy so we were naïve. Then it appeared it’s an all-embracing programme so there is a lot in it and there are so many layers so you can write, you can listen, you can view animations. There is interaction – you can measure your own progress. So there are so many things in it and to develop that it was quite a strain, both technically as well as thinking of good concepts, that it all made sense, that it all came together.
What impact has been seen on patients that use it?
We did a pilot version last year, last summer, and the patients involved said, they gave the feedback, that it changed their way of thinking and it changed their behaviour, for example, on the topic boundaries. So we will not change the way you think but you can change yourself, the way you address your own boundaries. That is what we get is a feedback so it really gave them the support and also something concrete at hand that they can do something about their fatigue. I think that’s one of the important things, that people feel that there is now something concrete that you can use and you can do something about it. I think that’s very important.
What’s next?
What’s next is we were very happy and very lucky to receive a Horizon 2020 subsidy and with that we will conduct a very large scientific research programme. It will start in January, we will do that with the University of Groningen and that will take two years. Also we will try and we will work on how can we make sure that the cancer patients get this app. So we have to work on the implementation, spreading the word etc. but we will also do a small blended care pilot, we call it. So what we will do is work together with certain hospitals and we will try to see if, for example, a doctor or a nurse can be the coach of a patient who suffers from fatigue. So the patient uses the app and the caregiver, healthcare provider, will be supporter, coach, and talk about their fatigue. Because we know that one of the issues is that fatigue is a very large problem and we know that it’s not common to talk about it, both from the side of the professional as well as the patient. We think it will help both very much to talk about it and to work on it together. So that is what we will do in the next coming two years – work on the clinical trial or clinical practice.
Could I ask you just briefly about the process of publishing with ecancer? How did you find that so far?
We liked it. First of all, the process went very smoothly, very fine, very good cooperation together with ecancer. First of all, we like to tell the world about it and to have this platform and these articles being published. The process was very good so it was very fast, the review process was very quick. We hope lots of readers will enjoy the article.
