Jenny Bradford – Senior Clinical Informatician – has partnered with Alkesh Patel, Pharmacist within the ECMC at The Christie, to develop a technology solution for patients who are waiting to receive IV treatment on clinical trials being run at the Clinical Research Facility at The Christie. The result was a prototype mobile phone treatment preparation tracker app that was trialled with both patients and staff.

Patient feedback

Thank you for inviting me to trial the app today and for the opportunity to provide feedback on its usefulness. It is definitely a potential benefit, as it provides the ability to leave the department, go ‘off site’ and yet remain in contact. Not only this but it seems to me an easy and simple way of keeping the patient informed and saving staff time making phone calls.

The app allows nursing and pharmacy staff, via a simple button press, to confirm progress for an individual patient’s treatment preparation along a pre-determined route.  Patients can view the progress of their treatment preparation, giving them an indication of how long the preparation may take, which means that they have freedom to leave The Christie site for a while, should they wish.

Funding has now been approved to develop a prototype app based on the findings from this study and to run a further three-month trial.

This innovative approach has been presented as a poster at the UK Clinical Research Facility Network Conference and will be presented at the British Oncology Pharmacy Association Conference in October 2018.