Phone App Help For Cancer Patients

22 September 2011, 05:00 | Updated: 22 September 2011, 14:31

Heart's been finding out about a phone app scientists in Oxford have made to help cancer patients monitor their treatment.

The project is being carried out as a joint venture between Oxford University and the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital Trust.

It's being paid for by some of the £100m of government cash recently given to the partnership for research from the National Institute of Health Research.

Researchers have developed the app so cancer patients can monitor the side effects of their chemotherapy at home, and send back information to nurses at the hospital, so they can see how each patient is doing.

The nurses are also alerted if there is a problem.

At the moment the app is being trialed by patients in Oxfordshire, and so far developers have received positive feedback from both patients and medical staff.

Dr Oliver Gibson is a researcher in the biomedical engineering department and works with doctors and nurses at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals.

He told Heart it could be the future of how things work in the NHS:

"The patient's drug doses can be adjusted to give them the best chance of beating cancer, whilst avoiding he risks from side effects.

"It's certainly something we want to use if possible to deliver patient benefit.

"There's this day-to-day technology such as mobile phone apps. If we can use that working with colleagues in the NHS to deliver patient benefit this is something we should definitely pursue."

As well as working on the apps they have already created, Oliver and the rest of the team are also developing similar apps to help people with diabetes asthma sufferers.