Kat McTaggart (centre), pictured with her daughter and fiancé, was one of the first patients to use the patient engagement app in Nova Scotia.
As Kat McTaggart scrolls through an app on her phone, she’s reminded of how far she’s come in her healthcare journey. It’s a bit like reflecting on a journal entry she says.
“I didn't think I made progress, but I'm looking now on May 15 [2023], and my emotions were fear, worry, sadness. You know, frustration, anger. And I don't feel those things now,” Kat shares. “I think that's pretty neat to be able to track that.”
The app that Kat is referring to is the patient engagement app. The free digital tool, developed by Varian, a Siemens Healthineers company, is helping unlock a new way to manage patient care for registered Nova Scotia Health Cancer Care Program patients.
Creating open lines of communication between patients and cancer care teams across the province, the app enables proactive and personalized care. It also provides digital content to better inform and instruct patients during care and a place for patients, like Kat, to report on their symptoms and how they’re feeling – information they can discuss with their care team.
Kat was one of the first users in Nova Scotia to register for and use the app, while she was undergoing radiotherapy at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in 2023 – a preventative measure following surgery to remove a brain tumour.
'My life completely changed'
In 2019, Kat had urgent surgery at the QEII to remove a brain tumour, which was detected during a CT scan.
“Basically, within an hour [of having the scan] my family doctor called with the news,” she says. “My life completely changed.”
Following brain surgery, she describes her recovery as “smooth” and was able to continue to do the things she loves, like playing competitive dodgeball with a Halifax-based league, a passion of hers that keeps her healthy and active.
After surgery, it was determined that the type of tumour Kat had carries a high regrowth rate; hers was graded as low. But just three years later, in 2022, Kat began to have symptoms and worried that the tumour had returned. Eight months later in March, she underwent a second brain surgery to remove two tumours in the same place as the first. It was then she opted to have preventative radiotherapy at the QEII Cancer Centre – the largest specialized cancer centre in Atlantic Canada.
“For 30 days, I had to have daily radiation therapy,” Kat says, explaining that her cancer care team told her about the new digital tool.
During that time, Kat says one of the most useful functions of the app was being able to see all her appointments in the calendar.
When you’re going through daily radiation, and you start to feel tired and unwell, keeping all that information straight can be difficult. The app helps to make things simplified and in one spot; it’s definitely easier for the patient."
Expanding resources for patients
The patient engagement app is expanding in the coming months to include functionality for patients to directly report on their health status, enabling earlier intervention to manage symptoms as the patient can relay physical and emotional needs to their healthcare team through the app.
The QEII Foundation is raising $1.1 million for the project, helping the Nova Scotia Health Cancer Care Program to investigate new ways of using the digital tool so that it can be used by patients and clinicians to its full potential.
With approximately 45,000 Nova Scotians currently receiving some form of cancer care in the province, QEII Foundation donors will help improve access to care, ensuring patients have the resources and tools they need.
Kat says she thinks the expanded version of the app will continue to have a greater impact on patients who are receiving care, including herself.
In late October, Kat will have a follow-up MRI to determine the next steps to treat another brain tumour. Noting that it is not an ideal spot for surgical removal, she will likely undergo radiation at the QEII in the coming months. And the patient engagement app will once again become a powerful resource for her.
“The days can become blurred when you’re undergoing treatment, and feeling sick and fatigued, or, perhaps just trying to heal. The simplicity to be monitored or reach out to your care team in one easy step through the app will be reassuring for patients,” she says. “It gives you a connection – it makes you feel like you haven’t been forgotten about.”
