Hirslanden Radiotherapy in Switzerland has implemented Kaiku Health as a digital patient management solution in the Oncological Rehabilitation of cancer patients in Aargau (ORA) program. The first pilot group of patients started to use Kaiku Health as a part of their rehabilitation on June 1st 2020.
The rehabilitation project aims to restore patients’ physical, social and mental wellbeing during and after cancer treatments. It includes psychological, sexual, physical and nutritional follow-up and therapy in order to holistically improve the patients’ quality of life. The pilot also investigates how digital symptom management can be used to support cancer patients’ rehabilitation.
“Cancer patients face individual challenges, such as emotional stress or social and financial difficulties, that require professional help of different fields. As these problems are usually quite individual, they need to be solved with a personalized program. This makes oncological rehabilitation complex to organize and manage.”, describes Anita Gutierrez, lead nurse at Hirslanden Radiotherapy and ORA board member.
Digital symptom management is also expected to make the coordination of multidisciplinary treatment plans easier for both patients and health care professionals.
“A platform which supports patients with information related to their program, coordinates individual treatment plans and appointments as well as continuously evaluates patients’ symptoms and quality of life can potentially bring enormous benefits to the success of the rehabilitation.”, Dr. von Briel from Hirslanden Radiotherapy assesses. The generated data can also benefit and improve cancer patients’ rehabilitation in general.
“Analysis of the data of all patients can answer important questions regarding the benefits of oncological rehabilitation. This is crucial for the improvement of the programs, but also for convincing stakeholders such as rehabilitation financiers.”
The ORA modules last from 8 to 16 weeks. The rehabilitation program is currently available for Hirslanden Radiotherapy cancer patients regardless of cancer types.
Improved quality of life through rehabilitation
Cancer patients’ rehabilitation is a part of Switzerland’s national strategy against cancer. Rehabilitation has led to good results in improving patients’ quality of life.
“Cancer therapies are becoming increasingly successful. Today around 50% of patients with a cancer diagnosis can be cured and many live for years with the disease. While patients can often be healed or survive increasingly long timespans, the side effects are substantial and can lead, acutely or over the years, to a decreased quality of life.”, Dr. von Briel describes.
“We can’t focus only at the numbers of cured patients or prolonged survival, but also need to make sure the patients maintain as much of their quality of life as possible and are able to continue their lives as they were used to – physically, mentally and socially. Oncological rehabilitation is becoming increasingly important and the goal is to optimize every patient’s quality of life with interdisciplinary methods tailored to their needs and to restore their abilities in all aspects of their daily lives”.
“By combining precision medicine and interdisciplinary care with digital interventions, we aim to provide truly personalized support for every patient.”, Lauri Sippola, CEO of Kaiku Health adds.
The rehabilitation project is implemented in cooperation with Hirslanden Clinic Aarau, Radiotherapy Hirslanden and the Swiss cancer patient organisation Krebsliga Aargau.
About Kaiku Health
Kaiku Health is a digital health intervention platform classified as a Medical Device in cancer care. Its algorithms screen symptoms, notify care team and provide personalised support for patients. Kaiku Health has modules for over 25 cancer types across different cancer care pathways and is currently in use in leading European cancer clinics and hospitals.