Atlantis Healthcare are one of the 16 organisations that are partners in the MyPal project.
With a strong foundation and deep expertise in health psychology, Atlantis Healthcare are specialists in developing and designing personalised tools and programmes, used by public health organisations and pharmaceutical companies throughout the world, that enable patients to better manage their own health.
They draw on extensive research and understanding of patient behaviour to help people with a range of conditions from common illnesses like asthma and diabetes to rare genetic conditions.
Atlantis Healthcare have developed an approach that can be tailored to individual patients to help them develop positive behaviours that enhance their ability to manage their own condition.
Role in the MyPal project
Atlantis Healthcare are contributing to the MyPal clinical trial of the MyPal app intervention for adult patients with haematological cancer (blood cancers) in two key areas.
They are developing a personalised motivational messaging system to encourage patients to stay engaged with the MyPal app during their participation in the study.
They are also designing an online discussion tool for healthcare professionals (HCPs) to use with their patients to help enhance the care experience and to encourage and support adherence to the agreed treatments.
Personalised messaging
A key issue in almost all clinical trials is retaining participants throughout the duration of the study. This is even harder to do in advanced cancer and palliative care trials, like MyPal, where the potentially deteriorating health of the patient can seriously affect their ability and motivation to carry on in the trial.
Extensive research by the Atlantis Healthcare team, exploring the different factors that affect patients’ continued participation in clinical trials, has led to the development of a specific questionnaire which all patients will complete at the beginning of the study. Based on their responses, this will enable patients to receive personalised, and carefully timed motivational messages and advice through the MyPal app during the trial.
In developing and testing such personalised messaging within the MyPal trial, Atlantis Healthcare aim to demonstrate an effective approach that helps address the issue of patient retention during clinical trials.
Discussion guide for healthcare professionals
Along with the development of the personalised messaging tool, the team at Atlantis Healthcare have also developed a discussion guide, for healthcare professionals (HCPs) to use as part of their regular discussions with patients.
The tool will be provided through the MyPal healthcare professional’s online portal and aims to help them talk about patient’s concerns – such as the emotional impact of their cancer, as well as their perceptions about their prescribed medication and wider issues – which might prevent the patient adhering to the medication prescribed.
Based on a non-adherence risk assessment questionnaire, the digital discussion guide will be tailored to highlight each patient’s specific concerns and will enable HCPs to focus on the issues most pertinent to each individual patient.
Atlantis Healthcare believe that in the future the HCP-patient discussion guide can be used in other clinical care settings where brief patient assessment and tailored interventions could be quickly and effectively delivered to improve medication adherence and assist HCPs in enabling patients to adopt positive behaviours so they can more effectively manage their treatment and overall health condition.
Link
Fact file
- Atlantis Healthcare have a global multi-disciplinary team of 150+ experts in health psychology, nursing, service provision, experience design, digital strategy, and data-driven personalisation technology
- They have delivered support solutions to people across 20+ countries
- The company have offices in the UK, Germany, New Zealand, Australia and the US
- More than 200 programmes designed and delivered for healthcare partners
- Experience in 100+ disease states, from ultra-rare genetic conditions to asthma and diabetes
Heather Parker
Director of Strategic Initiatives, Atlantis Healthcare, United Kingdom