Cancer patients will soon be able to receive thorough monitoring at home with a smart patch. The system continuously monitors the patient's vital signs and communicates them with the entire medical team—from specialists to home care nurses. This allows for quick intervention while enabling the patient to remain in a familiar environment. A Belgian consortium of Byteflies, nexuzhealth, Wit-Gele Kruis Oost-Vlaanderen, Leuven Cancer Institute, and UZ Leuven aims to reduce hospital admissions by 10% and significantly improve the life expectancy and quality of life of patients with OncoCare@Home. This project was made possible thanks to the spearhead cluster flanders.healthTech and VLAIO.

Despite medical advancements, about 193 Belgians are still diagnosed with cancer every day, and with over 15,000 deaths annually, the disease remains one of Belgium’s leading causes of death. However, due to medical progress, life expectancy has improved significantly: 7 out of 10 patients are still alive three years after diagnosis. Yet, the treatment process is often long and impactful, making rapid and appropriate follow-up during and after treatment vital.

Constant monitoring, even from home, would be highly valuable—for both the patient and their medical team. Studies show that telemonitoring can significantly increase the life expectancy of cancer patients and help prevent (re)admissions to the hospital. Continuous follow-up and communication with various healthcare professionals—from oncologists to general practitioners to home care nurses—enables quicker responses to potential treatment side effects or other risk factors, such as infections that could endanger the patient.

OncoCare@Home: complementary expertise 

It was time to develop such a structured home monitoring solution, thought Byteflies, a specialist in wearables, together with nexuzhealth, an expert in electronic patient records, the Leuven Cancer Institute, UZ Leuven, and Wit-Gele Kruis Oost-Vlaanderen. These organizations formed the OncoCare@Home consortium. The partners will leverage their complementary expertise to develop a user-friendly monitoring solution tailored to both patients and healthcare professionals. The project receives support from Flanders Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which is funding it with €1,000,000.

Hans Danneels, co-CEO of Byteflies: “We are very pleased to work with these partners to help improve the prognosis and quality of life for cancer patients. Initially, we will focus on developing a system tailored to the diverse clinical presentations that cancer patients show during both the treatment phase and the recovery period. We are aiming for a user-friendly solution in the form of a smart patch that the patient can wear to enable 24/7 monitoring. This system has already proven its value for other chronic conditions, both in terms of ease of use for patients and for specialists and hospital staff.”

“Initially, we will focus on developing a tailored system for the diverse clinical presentation of cancer patients during both the treatment phase and the recovery period.”

Nexuzhealth—which currently manages the largest patient portal in Flanders—will import and process the data collected via the smart patch into an electronic health record. This data will then be shared with treating physicians and care teams in both the hospital and primary care settings. This approach allows data from the home environment to be interpreted in conjunction with the patient's medical history.

Gertie Delande, CEO of nexuzhealth: “Our added value lies in our technical expertise: setting up platforms and capturing and processing data to create a patient-centric and user-friendly solution. By integrating data from a smart patch into our patient records, we will better support healthcare providers in making fast and accurate analyses, which ultimately enhances the quality of care. This project is also a significant step forward in our vision of working with strategic partners to optimize digital healthcare.”

Nexuzhealth also aims to integrate its technology with the workflows of Wit-Gele Kruis Oost-Vlaanderen, Flanders' largest home care provider. Wim Allemeersch, General Director of Wit-Gele Kruis Oost-Vlaanderen: “We often support cancer patients as they continue their recovery at home. Having continuous measurements of these patients would be a tremendous asset, allowing our teams to assess their condition even better and faster.”

Clinical trials for OncoCare@Home will take place at UZ Leuven, whose Leuven Cancer Institute (LKI) is a leading authority in cancer treatment in Belgium. Prof. Dr. Michel Delforge, Chairman of the LKI: “Current cancer treatments are becoming increasingly effective, but they often need to be administered over a long period, and each treatment can cause specific side effects. Some side effects are merely uncomfortable, but others can be dangerous. Think of infections or cardiac toxicity. If we can detect and better monitor side effects more quickly through telemonitoring, we can not only improve the quality of life but also the life expectancy of some cancer patients.”

The partners will focus this year on developing the solution and protocols, aiming to enter the testing phase in 2023. By the end of next year, they hope to complete the testing phase. The ambition is to monitor approximately 10,000 patients in Belgium with the OncoCare@Home solution by 2027.

Over Byteflies

Byteflies is working towards a future where healthcare is fully personalized and preventive. Their solution enables long-term and synchronized measurement of vital signs and digital biomarkers using user-friendly patches, regardless of location and optimized for specific needs. Byteflies is actively developing wearables for people with epilepsy, sleep disorders, cardiorespiratory and neurodegenerative conditions, as well as for monitoring acute viral infections.

About Wit-Gele Kruis Oost-Vlaanderen

Wit-Gele Kruis is the largest home nursing organization in Flanders. In East Flanders, we care for over 17,000 patients every month. Wit-Gele Kruis— a trusted name in home nursing for 85 years— specializes in wound care, diabetes, palliative care, stoma and incontinence care, psychiatric care, geriatrics, ergonomics, and ethical care provision. As an expert in home nursing, we provide tailored care using the latest nursing techniques. Warm and compassionate care drives our more than 1,600 employees, who maintain close contact with local general practitioners, hospitals, informal caregivers, and other healthcare partners.

About flanders.healthTech

The spearhead cluster flanders.healthTech supports companies and knowledge institutions in setting up consortia and developing projects to apply for earmarked funding from VLAIO. flanders.healthTech is the seventh cluster established within the Flemish government's impulse program and VLAIO's cluster policy. More than 70 R&D partners from the Flemish ecosystem are committed to jointly promoting innovation in HealthTech applications, focusing on four themes: personalized medicine, digital medicine, efficient healthcare, and groundbreaking healthcare innovations. More information: www.flandershealth.tech