MY MELANOMA APP
In October 2017, Melanoma UK, Vitaccess, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust joined forces to create the innovative patient-centric My Melanoma app.
After four years, the study as it is has come to an end and is moving onto the next phase. With technology moving fast, the app requires a lot of work to stay relevant and user-friendly for participants. While we and Melanoma UK look for funding, we are closing the current study and will update participants on progress.
Dr Mark Larkin, CEO and Founder of Vitaccess, commented: “Our work with Melanoma UK and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation during these four years has been an incredible journey. Working closely with them and the participants, we have created a tool which proved invaluable to researchers and we will keep on supporting Melanoma UK in the search for funding.”
We want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who joined the study for making a success of this project through their participation in the study and their input during our patient feedback sessions.
This innovative digital study proved extremely useful to researchers, including the team at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. Participants and industry allowed Vitaccess to donate more than £15,000 to Melanoma UK over the past four years. This was made possible thanks to industry subscriptions and to participants’ diligence in completing the surveys in the app.
THANK YOU to everyone for their invaluable participation in the My Melanoma app study.
ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
The study achieved a range of research objectives, exploring how melanoma and its treatments impact patients in the real world.
Below are links to some of the academic publications stemming from the study – they demonstrate how participants’ input has made an invaluable contribution to research in melanoma:
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How do patients manage side effects during melanoma treatment? The importance of social support and doctor–patient communication
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Rewarding participants through charitable donations to Melanoma UK motivates recruitment and engagement: a bring your own device study example
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Targeted review of adverse events associated with treatments for stage 3 and 4 melanoma
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Adverse events associated with immunotherapies used in the treatment of stage 3 and 4 melanoma
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Patient-reported real-world treatment patterns for melanoma in the UK measured using a digital ‘bring your own device’ platform
For all of our publications, please visit https://vitaccess.com/publications/.
ABOUT THE APP
The My Melanoma app is no longer active. The app can be removed from participants’ phones by uninstalling it. Participants will see an error message if they attempt to use the app after it becomes inactive.
ABOUT PARTICIPANTS’ DATA
The data shared about diagnosis, treatment, and quality of life has been removed from production systems and anonymized before being archived in case of further research opportunities. Personally identifiable information will be stored for no longer than six months after the study closes – we store this information for this period in case we need to contact some participants for safety purposes.
Any participants wishing to receive a copy of the data they entered during the study should email Vitaccess at dpo@vitaccess.com. Please be aware that requests to extract data will involve a long processing time, as it has been anonymized and will require reconciliation.
WHAT THE PARTICIPANTS HAD TO SAY
Anything we can do for patients, the resource that they have, that they can use, they can fill their symptoms in, that’s the most important thing. We fight very hard to get the patients’ voice heard and too often that doesn’t happen in any kind of disease. I just think it’s a big plus.
It is for patients, it’s as simple as that. It couldn’t be easier. It’s written in English, not in medical speak. The questions that you are asked on the app are how your lifestyle is, how you actually feel today, do you have any issues medically. They are straightforward and easy questions. Information that is sent through to the people that need to have it and which will improve patients’ lives in the future.
It does make you think about yourself because you go on and you do the surveys, whereas if you’re sort of a bit like me where you just want to completely ignore everything and tip it to the back of your mind, it does make you think about your symptoms and where you’re at, which is important.
