CATCH: Cancer Activating Technology for Connected Health

BACKGROUND

Advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment have been ground-breaking and many cancers are now considered chronic disease rather than fatal illness. This moves the focus in the fight against cancer from sustaining life towards maximising functional capacity and Quality of Life (QoL).
CATCH was an Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme which successfully optimised technological tools to meet cancer patients’ rehabilitation needs and improve the quality of care.

INSIGHT OUTPUTS

-New Ethnographic methods
-Care pathway from patient perspective
-Design guidelines for digital interventions and care innovators
-Engagement techniques for oncology patients
-Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation training programme
-Prototype patient information app
-Guidelines for use of stakeholder interactions to qualify commercialization efforts
-Social mobile app for prostate cancer patients

OUTCOME

CATCH addressed a critical gap in the cancer care spectrum by developing a cadre of early-stage researchers who understand the nature of cancer rehabilitation from a patient perspective, both from the physical and psychological aspects and who can use this to design and test technology enabled solutions that offer targeted guidance and feedback tailored to suit patients’ needs. Furthermore, the programme trained researchers to be able to drive adoption at scale for maximum exploitation of solutions. CATCH coordinated by Insight@UCD consolidated Insight’s experience in interdisciplinary health-related research, human performance measurement and optimization with industry partners’ commercial knowledge. Clinical experts specialising in cancer treatment & the psychological aspects of such treatment ensured a rounded view of the patient perspective as well as access to patient populations.

IMPACT

CATCH developed an end-to-end roadmap for the activation of technology to bridge the gap between cancer survivors’ physical and emotional state. The solutions developed by CATCH benefit patients through improved Quality of Life and cost savings for healthcare systems. CATCH was a deep collaboration across academic, industry and clinical sectors training 8 early-stage researchers with the necessary intersectoral and interdisciplinary perspectives necessary to address the gaps in the knowledge and evidence base for technology-enabled cancer rehabilitation.