The digital cancer care platform has partnered with Boots Macmillan Information Pharmacists to provide additional advice and care throughout a patient’s cancer treatment.
Digital cancer care platform Careology has partnered with retailer Boots to provide additional support, care and advice for patients with cancer.
The collaboration, available initially at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, allows patients to access digital and pharmacy-led support from Boots Macmillan Information Pharmacists (BMIPs) through the Careology app.
BMIPs are Boots pharmacists who have had extra training, developed jointly by Macmillan Cancer Support and Boots, to support people affected by cancer. The collaboration between Careology and Boots will enable BMIPs to provide additional advice and care throughout a patient’s cancer treatment and can cover a range of practical and emotional concerns.
“This has the power to redirect care from hospitals, where safe and appropriate, in order that patients who require more complex hospital-based care can be seen more quickly,” said Majid Kazmi, director of innovation for cancer and surgery at Guy’s and St Thomas’.
Rising cancer rates
Currently, side effects flagged as “green” or “amber” within the Careology app, using the UKONS classifications, are often triaged by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS oncology nurses on a dedicated Acute Oncology Service (AOS) helpline. Green symptoms, such as mild pain, fatigue and nausea, typically require guidance or medication without urgent or acute interventions. Of more than 6,000 calls to this helpline in 2022, approximately 40% were advisory in nature and could have been effectively managed outside the hospital.
Guy’s and St Thomas’ treats around 6,500 patients with cancer each year, and between April and October last year, the AOS helpline received around 500 calls per month. Demand for this service is projected to grow in tandem with rising cancer incidence rates and the increasing number of people living with cancer in the UK – a figure Macmillan estimates growing from 3.5 million cases in 2025 to 4 million by 2030.
In addition to the care and support already provided by the cancer teams at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, the Careology app will enable patients to self-manage and better understand aspects of their treatment, including medication, side effects and symptom tracking. The patient-reported information is available on the Careology Professional dashboard for cancer teams to have consistent access to how their patients are managing their condition.
In March, Careology partnered with oncology service provider Entia to help patients safely self-manage more of their treatment from home.
