New App Makes It Easier to Team Up Around the Patient

In August 2018 The Danish Cancer Society launched an app for cancer patients and their relatives called “My Team”.  In a survey answered by 549 present and former cancer patients, 9 out of 10 reported having a need for practical help during the period of their cancer treatment. This was also reported and confirmed by many of the users of our counselling units around the country.

The needs range from having someone attend doctors’ appointments with them, driving them to the hospital or other kinds of transportation, and the need for all sorts of various kinds of practical help. Some of the patients are ill or weak for quite long periods, and it can be a challenge to maintain some kind of daily routine if they don’t get any help. Especially, perhaps, for families with smaller children.

We were often told that it is not that easy to ask for help or know what to ask for. We were also told that the relatives really wanted to help, but it could be difficult for them to know what was needed and what would be helpful. The purpose of the app is to build a bridge between these two needs: the need for help and the need to help.

How does it work?

The patient invites potential helpers to join their team via the app. If the patient, due to lack of time or energy, wishes to outsource the administration, the team can also be initiated and administrated by a close relative. When you create a team, you can choose to have all of the members in the same group, or you can divide the team into two groups. Division of the team can be relevant if you have different tasks that demands different degrees of proximity to the patient. I.e. you might want your closest relatives to have access to all health information and be able to help with all tasks, and you might want to have other parents help your child attend football or your neighbor buy groceries without them being involved in the details of your illness.

The app has two main tracks.

One that enables members of the team to share information, and one that coordinates practical tasks. These two tracks are, as expected, the ones most used.

A third track offers knowledge about where to seek professional information and help, with a focus on the free counselling activities offered by The Danish Cancer Society.

Feedback from the users points out the relief of not having to write 50 texts on the phone every time their situation changes and the joy of receiving help very easily with both very practical chores and mental support. The relatives point out that finding out how to be helpful is very easy. They also emphasize that the transparency of who is helping can be useful in many ways. If one of them has a busy week without much spare time to offer, it can feel okay not to help during that particular week, if they can see that many other people are helping.

Who can use it?

“My Team” is intended for patients and relatives across all ages and cancer diagnoses.

You can be a part of the team even though you are living far from the patient and thereby potentially feel closer, because you are involved in all relevant information.

The app is free and can also be downloaded and used by people with long term diagnoses other than cancer.

Status

The app “My Team” (in Danish: “Sammenholdet”) has approximately 5000 users distributed on around 1160 teams. These numbers are satisfactory considering its short time on the market and the size of our country. We expect to recruit more users and we continue to develop the app taking advice from the users giving us feedback on an almost daily basis.

Contact details for further questions: Marie Lawaetz; mariel@cancer.dk