My Alma: A Digital App Supporting Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients in Greece

Background: Current research has shown that women with MBC patients feel ashamed and isolated. In Greece, “Alma Zois”, as a patient group, has made several attempts to provide support, but with a moderate success. Nevertheless, MBC patients have unmet needs that consist of better information and knowledge about MBC, better support for physical and emotional impact of MBC and better quality of life. Especially when it comes to younger women, these needs seem to be less covered. The development of a specially designed digital application (app) will cover the gap between support services and MBC patients by embracing the digital era in a country where 66% of the population uses smartphones. Aim: The development of the app aims at: 1) providing useful information about metastatic breast cancer, 2) reaching out to MBC patients, 3) improving the quality of life, 4) increasing healthy behaviors, and 5) increasing compliance. Methods: The project “My Alma App” is designed according to three major pillars: 1) Awareness, 2) Support 3) Communication. The 1st part AWARENESS includes: information about MBC. Calendar - Daily record of healthy behaviors (walking, nutrition, etc.). The 2nd part SUPPORT includes: 1) Psychological advice provided by psycho-oncologists, 2) Emotional-meter: issue the daily question “How are you feeling today?” and based on the patient's answer, the app can provide multiple suggestions/call to action. The 3rd part COMMUNICATION includes: personalized motivation, calendar with reminders of medication, therapies and events that might be of interest according to each patient's profile. Results: To achieve the best quality for the project: 1) A technical development of the app is been held, 2) The app will be tested by a group of patients as a pilot study and 3) Updates and improvements based on users feedback (metastatic breast cancer patients) and latest scientific data will be made. After the official launch, a short satisfaction survey will be addressed to every registered user. Finally, to motivate patients to use the app, a special social media campaign about the app will be launched. Conclusion: It is expected that the app will provide to MBC patients ways and methods to deal with the emotional challenges, distress and ways to improve their daily activities and their quality of life. Upon the end of the launch of the app, it is expected that a number of 500 Stage III and IV breast cancer patients will start using the app. The number of people who will download the app, the data provided by app users and the ratings and answers on “emotion-meter” during a period of time will be indexes of impact of the project to the MBC community in Greece.