Incorporating expert cancer information from Macmillan Cancer
Support, Accord Healthcare launches new app for cancer patients –
more pertinent than ever during COVID-19 pandemic
This press release is intended for general distribution to UK
consumer, trade, and medical press
HARROW, England, June 14,
2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Accord Healthcare (Accord) today
announced the launch of Unify Health – a new app for cancer
patients undergoing treatment incorporating expert data from
Macmillan Cancer Support. This new resource has been devised by
experts from across the cancer community to support and advise
people on their physical and mental wellbeing whilst undergoing
cancer treatment. The app can also connect patients with not just
local pharmacists in their area but also community pharmacists who
have committed to become 'Community Cancer Champions.'
Experts at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, the
world-leading cancer centre and teaching institution have helped to
develop a practical, bite-size training curriculum for community
pharmacists who wish to help champion cancer care in the community.
The training provides advice on how to talk to and assist cancer
patients, particularly around managing symptoms and worries.
Undergoing cancer treatment can be bewildering, with an array of
advice and support available from many different sources. This has
only been made worse during the COVID-19 pandemic, as cancer
patients may have felt the need to avoid healthcare facilities, for
fear of being put at greater risk of coming into contact with the
virus.
Unify Health aims to be an app that is always accessible,
no matter whether it is night or day that cancer patients and their
carers can use, providing a toolkit of tailored advice and
information with the ability to locate community pharmacists with
training on the management of cancer symptoms and side effects
caused by its treatments. These side effects vary from person to
person but can include amongst other things dry skin following
radio or chemotherapy, disrupted sleep, mouth and throat sores,
hair loss, nutritional needs, and feelings of nausea.
"The pandemic has had a huge impact on cancer care in the UK,"
says Dany Bell, Strategic Adviser
for Treatment, from Macmillan Cancer Support. "There is a need now,
more than ever to develop measures for effective support for
management of symptoms and reducing further, any barriers for
people to safely access advice. It's all very well searching for
information online, but it's so much more reassuring for someone
living with cancer to actually connect with a 'real person' – a
healthcare professional who has committed to Cancer Care in the
Community who can also provide tailored advice, specific to an
individual patient's needs.
"Limited access to hospitals and hands-on care during the
pandemic has simply exacerbated the mental health burden on cancer
patients during the last 12 months," said Badri Wadawadigi, Accord Healthcare's Head of
Digital Health. "If people can face their cancer armed with
tailored but medically validated information, this could help
decrease worry and may also result in better healthcare outcomes,"
he continued.
While access to care has been affected by COVID-19, the pandemic
has seen greater acceptance within the medical community of new
digital approaches to reach out to all patients, not just those
with a cancer diagnosis. GPs and hospital consultants have been
conducting remote consultations, either by phone or video, and the
healthcare sector has accelerated new ways of interacting with
patients.
Unify Health is an app for people with cancer and their carers
and is available on both the Android and Apple app stores. You can
download it free from www.unifyhealth.app
Notes to Editor
About Macmillan Cancer Support
At Macmillan, we give people with cancer everything we've got.
If you're diagnosed, your worries are our worries. We will move
mountains to help you live life as fully as you can.
And we don't stop there. We're going all out to find ever better
ways to help people with cancer, helping to bring forward the day
when everyone gets life-transforming support from day one.
We'll do whatever it takes. For information, support or just
someone to talk to, call 0808 808 0000 or visit
macmillan.org.uk
About Accord Healthcare
Headquartered in the United Kingdom, Accord Healthcare
Europe is one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical companies
in Europe. Accord has one of the largest market footprints of
any European generic and biosimilars companies selling generic
medicines in over 80 countries around the world.
This global footprint enables us to deliver vital, affordable
medicines to national health systems supporting healthcare
professionals to transform patient lives worldwide.
The approach of Accord is agile and inventive, always seeking to
improve products and patients' access to them. Accord are driven to
think differently and deliver more for the benefit of patients
worldwide.
Contact:
pr@accord-healthcare.com
+44 (0)7887 471200