Cancer Com.

Cancer Com. is a digital platform that connects cancer patients with the necessary resources and services to provide them with the best medical and social support.

According to the WHO, in 2020, there were 28,764 prevalent cancer cases with 11,589 new cases in Lebanon alone. Patients usually do as instructed by their oncologist, who focuses on treatment. Unless the patient is part of a cancer center, which is very expensive, their journey is only focused on taking chemotherapy without a holistic look into their needs nor a multidisciplinary approach to symptoms' management. Studies have shown that a multidisciplinary approach to treatment increased the quality of life and survival rates of cancer patients, which placed symptoms tracking and personalized multidisciplinary management applications under the spotlight. However, none of these applications target the MENA region, rendering its patients clueless of such support. Cancer is unfortunately still handled in Lebanon not just a diagnosis but a death sentence, and many patients have a difficult time finding the support that they need. With the current economic crisis, patients are barely able to find or afford their treatment, let alone seek mental and nutritional consults. Therefore, our solution is of great value, especially in the countries like Egypt and Lebanon with 160 and 166 cases by 100,000 people, respectively.

Cancer Com. aims to be the go to place for cancer patients and their family members. A platform that take a multidisciplinary look at the cancer community’s needs and ensures that no one goes through this journey alone. 

The app will monitor the patients' holistic progress, creating a trackable dashboard for the medical staff and alerting them when needed. It will generate personalized symptoms' management tips from a multidisciplinary approach and have a reward system to encourage this lifestyle enhancement. Patients will also have access to a community that is going through something similar, and they can share their concerns and journey anonymously or publically based on their preference.  

We aim to have the system AI powered, and the live chat to be the mind-set of an oncology nurse. However, this will depend on the funds and outsourced talent. Furthermore, we are aiming to have the platform as an app for easier communication and tracking.

We are aware that the cancer community is based on patients, family members, and survivors. Therefore, we want our solution to be accessible to all three. 

However, at the core is the cancer patients, so this is where we are going to start. The persona that we are targeting:

A cancer patient, who

• is 20-56 of age
• Knows about their diagnosis
• Has internet access (not always)
• Is capable of using the phone
• Wants to take charge of their own health and improve their lifestyle 
• Is actively looking for support and information
• Wants to be part of a community/ connect with someone going through something similar

This solution will ensure that all patients have their needs well accounted for and that no one fights alone. 

In September 2019 my mother passed away from breast cancer. It was a long, difficult, confusing journey that lasted 5 years. I felt that there are many gaps that should be filled. I entered the Millennium fellowship (MCN), as an undergrad, to get the proper training on starting an initiative with patients at the center. 

In September 2020, I launched the Cancer Com. initative to fill the gaps in the cancer community through youth and their network. Since I'm from a biology and psychology background, I gathered a team from the health sector, and we started raising awareness on all cancer types on our platform. Shortly after, we started offering services and awareness webinars in collaboration with prestigious health entities, and we work in close contact with the cancer NGOs. 

When the idea of the app was conceived, I joined a capacity building program (UN- Global compact Network Lebanon Brain Lab) and shortly after we entered an incubator (LAU Spark) to learn how to refine the project to become viable and sustainable. Right now, we're part of an accelerator (Bloom ACSI 2) to transform the concept into a prototype. 

I believe that my background allows me to formalize the solution in a biopsychosocial model. My experience with this disease allows me to understand the patients, and my direct contact with them everyday through the initiative's work gives me an even better perspective. 

Since we started as an initiative, my team is volunteer based. Right now, Cancer Com. has 20 volunteers that are passionate about changing the cancer community. They come from diverse backgrounds (Medicine, nursing, psychology, nutrition, and physiotherapy) with 2 cancer survivors on board leading the forefront of patient-interaction. 

On January 18, 2021, we collaborated with my university (Lebanese American University) to offer free online nutritional consultations virtually to cancer patients and survivors. The feedback was very rewarding. 

In May 2021, we collaborated with Rizik Hospital in a health fair where patients entered a virtual room and had a representative from every discipline. They shared a symptom they're facing and received advice on managing it from a nutritional perspective, a pharmaceutical perspective, and a nursing perspective. Something had never been done before. The, I was contacted by a physiotherapist that has her own clinic, supporting cancer patients' rehabilitation. She informed me about how difficult her job is because no pre-rehabilitation is implemented and because she doesn't know the recovering capacity of the patients. This is where the idea of a multidisciplinary app was born.

When I shared it with the patients, they were happy by the proposed support, but mentioned that it would be nice to communicate with other patients and see survivors who finished their treatment. This was a trend in answers, so we decided that community building should be a key in what we will be offering. In fact, this is where the prototype will start. 

This application aims at building a community of not only patients and survivors but also family members, NGOs, and experts. Therefore, the patient could 'blog' with an internal community of patients and external community of all stakeholders, anonymously or publically. This way, patients would never feel alone or need to 'search' for help when they need it. 

Furthermore, the idea of having 24/7 access to a chat with an AI of an oncology nurse is a key innovation. We're aware that this will not be available at the very beginning, but its development would be a breakthrough. It would allow proper support after midnight for urgencies when the patient's doctor is unavailable. It will allow effective referral and on spot assistance.

Moreover, it's the first time an application combines community building and symptoms tracking. It is noteworthy that the way the patient is texting could be analyzed to identify mood and mental progression. We haven't found this in any application that we came across through our research. 

Finally, the idea of symptoms tracking, will give the patient and his medical staff a dashboard of progression. However, the true purpose for me is to reach a point in which we have enough data to be able to make semi-accurate prognosis of the patient's condition based on biopsychosocial factors. This will assist the oncologist in designating treatments and choosing protocols.

The entire concept of the application is based on impacting the cancer community and supporting patient's needs. Having it developed and running allows the achievement of our desired impact. 

The plan of achieving this goal, with the current funding:

• Develop a mini version on bubble. We're aware that it's not HIPAA approved, but it will be used on a small cohort (20-40 people) to serve as a proof of concept for us to apply to big accelerators that could support with and mentor the development. It will also be a starting point for recruiting NGOs and clinics and testing patients' interaction (2 months development- 2 months testing)
• The developers that I've met with are not comfortable or well acquainted with AI. The next step will depend on the pool of talents we have access to and the funds, but I'm certain that I will be able to develop the prototype that can pick up the community building and simple tracking with generalized management tips (3 month development- 3 months implementation) 

my aim is to impact 600 patients (2% of the cancer population in Lebanon) by the end of this year. 

The solution is based on an application as the main platform. We have chosen it to be so since people are used to chatting on their phone and so it won't be a weird activity for them. However, the main reason for choosing it to be on an application is to be able to track their symptoms. 

As previously discussed, we want to include AI to achieve the desired outcome and impact. 

As part of the initiative, we were able to support 120 patients over the past year and a half. However, this happened without any form of marketing and just relied on the word of mouth with a limited capacity of patient support due to the collaboration restrictions with the university.

With launching the application, we aim to tap into 2% of the cancer patients in Lebanon which is around 600 patients by the end of this year. 

First technical, every developer I speak to makes me feel that AI integration is something impossible and is unable to explain how this happens. I've currently registered in an AI workshop to understand its mechanism better, but I need an expert in development with AI to be able to develop the desired outcome or at least be able to have a proper discussion regarding what we can or can't achieve, and set a plan to accomplish the latter. 

To be able to hire the aforementioned talents, I need funding. I've won the AUB Global Health Changemaker competition (3K) and Bloom ASCI2 Accelerator (3K). We also won the Lebanese German Forum Health tech startup but it had no monetary value. 

Since our app is health based, we need to be sure that everything is HIPAA approved, and we need guidance or mentorship on that. 

We are in partnership with a cancer NGO, called SAID NGO, and they give us access to their patients, and we are working on promoting a holistic approach together. 

We are in a collaboration with LAU Nutrition program and are working on a partnership with my university to allow us to access its hospital experts and patients. 

Segments + key activities 

We are equipping the patients and survivors with tools to enhance their quality of life and facilitate their journey.

We are providing the medical staff (oncologists, psychologists, physiotherapists, dietitians, complementary therapists...) with a platform that can help them better communicate with their patients and properly track their symptoms over a dashboard. 

We are providing the NGOs and related stakeholders access to the community that they need and serve. 

Channels

We are doing so through a platform that we want to develop as an application. A web would be connected for the admins and experts. 

Cost structure: Staff, online platforms, maintenance, and licensing

Surplus: Marketing and app development 

Revenue: Subscriptions and Ads (Explained below)

Subscription fees: Patients can be charged monthly or yearly for access to premium features such as personalized treatment plans, telemedicine consultation packages, and advanced symptom tracking. 

Freemium: for NGOs and related clinics 

In-app purchases: Patients can be offered additional resources or services 

Advertising: The app will display ads appropriate for the cancer patients, such as supportive products and services. 

Sponsorship and partnerships: The app can partner with other companies, organizations, or medical centers to generate revenue through sponsorship or referral fees. 

Data monetization: The app can collect patient data and sell it to pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, or research institutions for research and development purposes.

Affiliate marketing: The app can promote other companies products or services through affiliate links, earning a commission on any purchases made through these links. 

It's important to note that any revenue-generating activities should be in compliance with regulations and the app should be transparent with the patients on the use of their data