Xemio, an app to help women undergoing breast cancer treatment, is born - #BHHMembersInitiatives

BHH member the iSYS Foundation, dedicated to carrying out digital health social projects, has developed the Xemio app to accompany people undergoing breast cancer treatment. It is an app designed to help patients with any doubts they may have, offering specific, rigorous and up-to-date information to help them understand what is happening to them. It contains a list of more than fifty common side effects of the treatments, medical scales for objective assessment of their intensity and hygiene and dietary advice. The aim of this tool is to help patients with tailor-made information to lower their anxiety levels when they are at home during cancer treatment. Xemio was born from the personal experience of Imma Grau, president of the Foundation, engineer and social researcher, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012. Aware of the importance of having information, just when it is needed, to reduce anxiety levels, she decided to develop Xemio and thus help other people who were in the same situation. During the growth of the project, Dr. Montserrat Muñoz, oncologist and editor of Xemio, has supervised all the scientific content. The development of the current version of the Xemio app has been made possible thanks to a grant from the Caixa Foundation, an European H2020 grant and micro-patronage. The app makes it easier for patients to carry out their own monitoring, provides information on dozens of side effects, allows them to determine their intensity (mild, moderate or severe according to CTCA standards), provides hygienic-dietary advice and facilitates their registration. The information is complementary to healthcare and in no case replaces the information provided by healthcare professionals. The record of the adverse effects suffered in a period can be downloaded in pdf format, to be shared during the medical visit, thus promoting patient empowerment. In addition, the application is designed with technological standards in order to integrate with different health information systems and make it easier for clinicians to carry out real-life monitoring. Exercise has been proven to be beneficial in improving the side effects of breast cancer treatments. Therefore, the app tracks daily steps to promote physical activity. Patients will get information about the average steps of other app users, compare themselves with people in the same situation and read advice from health professionals and the WHO. Until now, the Xemio app has only been available to participants in a pilot study that is part of a European Horizon H2020 research project, called ASCAPE. The aim of ASCAPE is to use artificial intelligence to improve patients' quality of life. The Barcelona pilot involves the iSYS Foundation, the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and the FCRB. The app is currently available for free download on Android and iOS mobile phones worldwide. More information can be found here!