Hospitals now have a new tool to offer breast and colon cancer patients--a mobile app to help them manage their disease, coordinate their treatment regimen and work more closely with clinicians on their therapy.
"More and more women are seeking information about breast cancer, not just online, but using their mobile devices," Hope Wohl, CEO of BreastCancer.org, tells iMedicalApps. "The Cancer Coach app fulfills this need for reliable resources on the go as patients and their personal support networks navigate a new diagnosis."
Created by Genomic Health, BreastCancer.org and Fight Colorectal Cancer, the app offers a calendar for medical appointments, suggests questions patients should ask their physicians, and offers an audio record option for patients to note questions verbally, if they don't have time to enter them by hand. The app also provides a journal function to allow patients to track symptoms, improvements and other treatment milestones, company officials say.
Most interesting is a questionnaire created by researchers at Johns Hopkins and Ohio State universities. Based on the patient's answers to the questions, an underlying algorithm designs a suggested treatment guide that patients can discuss with their physicians, Genomics officials say.
"The app is an effective tool for patients to have in hand, especially when they meet with their doctor," Carlea Bauman, president of Fight Colorectal Cancer, said in a statement. "It gives them information unique to their diagnosis that can really make a difference in the discussion about treatment."
To learn more:
- read the iMedicalApps story
- check out the Genomics press release