By Christine Bork, Chief Development and Communications Officer, CureSearch for Children’s Cancer
*Originally posted on Medium
Childhood Cancer Awareness Month — 30 days dedicated to honoring children and families affected by these rare diseases and rallying support to give kids with cancer better outcomes. At CureSearch, our mission 365 days a year is to end children’s cancer and help families who have a child diagnosed with cancer. As part of our progressive approach to supporting children and families, we have harnessed the power of mobile technology to develop a free mobile app that helps manage pediatric cancer treatment.
When a child is diagnosed with cancer, the entire family faces substantial stress and shock. The acute phase of treatment — when children are in the hospital and often undergo intensive surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy — is especially distressing for parents and caregivers. Many parents struggle with how to cope with the complex and unfamiliar details of cancer treatment including doses, medications, blood counts, and scheduling. For many years, CureSearch provided parents and caregivers with three ring binders filled with information and tracking sheets. Parents would bring these binders to all of their medical appointments and use them at home to help organize and manage the various aspects of treatment.
But with the increasing ubiquity of mobile technology — 9 in 10 Americans now own a mobile device — we decided these binders should instead live in the smartphones of these caregivers. And we found that the parents and caregivers we worked with agreed. Almost 85% of our constituents said they would have used a mobile application to track their child’s treatment, had one been available. However, fewer than 15% said they found a functional mobile application that helped them manage any aspect of their child’s treatment.
The idea for the CureSearch CancerCare mobile app was born. Our team set out to develop a mobile platform that would provide free, comprehensive treatment management capabilities to parents and caregivers caring for a child with cancer. The first pediatric cancer care app of its kind, CureSearch CancerCare strengthens the connection between patient and care team. Given that children often receive lab results from multiple places, commute to their hospital, or divide their treatment between local and national care centers, CancerCare advances parents’ ability to share crucial information with multiple medical professionals.
The app is designed to be a personal caregiving assistant, with a mobile dashboard that allows for easy organization of treatment dates, appointments, and medication schedules that automatically sync with the phone’s calendar. Free and with no in-app advertisements, the CancerCare app is offered as a public service to parents and caregivers of the more than 15,000 children diagnosed with cancer every year, and the more than 40,000 children undergoing cancer treatment in the U.S. this year alone.
Last year, our app received national acclaim as the Grand Prize winner of The Mobileys, an annual mobile innovation competition that celebrates and supports early-stage and other mobile products that leverage wireless connectivity in new ways to have a positive social impact. The Mobileys was a crucial experience that allowed us to expand our network of technical advisors, as well as our overall reach, creating a greater space for innovation and ingenuity. As we rededicate ourselves to combatting this terrible illness, much remains to be done. Thanks to ongoing advances in research and treatment, as well as pioneering new therapies, we have made tremendous strides in the fight against childhood cancer. In this age of wireless connectivity, developing and employing mobile apps like CureSearch CancerCare are another valuable tool in the march toward eradicating pediatric cancer and helping children live long, healthy lives.
Download the CancerCare app and learn more about our research initiatives.
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