The SMILe App for your stem cell transplantation

Every year more than 3000 people in Switzerland and Germany receive an allogeneic stem cell transplantation.
Although the transplant cures them, a majority of the transplant survisors develop chronic complications. Therefore, they have to follow a huge set of recommendations and learn to implement a healthy lifestyle into their daily life. This can be challengeing.
The SMILe project aims to develop and test an App that support people after allogeneic stem cell transplantation in their first year after transplantation and makes the transition from hospital to home easier. Patients will use the app on a daily basis to enter the most important medical, behavioral and symptom related parameters. Data will be transferred electronically to the transplant center and overlooked by a Care-Coordinator. Patients will receive automated feedback tailored to entered values, to support them in their self- management or decision when a re-admission is necessary.
Features of the App are:

https://www.hs-augsburg.de/Informatik/Projekt-SMILe.html

The aim of SMILe is to re-design follow-up care after allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Moving from a more acutely, reactive system to a proactive follow-up care. This supports patients self-management, allows an early detection and prevention of complications resulting in fewer unplanned re-hospitalizations, fewer emergency room visits and may also improve patients quality of life.

• Because patients after stem cell transplantation expressed the wish for more support
• Evidence shows that electronic monitoring of medical, behavioral and symptom parameters combined with a care-coordinator can improve quality of life, reduce complications, and leads to fewer re-hospitalizations
• The SMILe app provides information about their symptoms and critical thresholdss and they learn how to master their daily life
• because the active support of health-promoting behavior supports the long-term success of stem cell transplantation as optimally as possible
• because allogeneic stem cell transplantation is only the beginning and other outpatient oncological treatments or transplantation types such as autologous stem cell transplantation, heart-lung, kidney or liver transplantation will follow

By reaching the first funding goal, we are able to develope more interactive components by producing 3-4 explanation videos on health-promoting behaviors and embedding them into the app. Topics could be e.g. prevention of infection: how do I disinfect my hands, how do I prepare food, or why regular medication is important.
Once the second funding target has been reached, we can implement additional functionalities of the app, such as motivational elements to support physical activity or a learning platform with infos how to prevent infections.